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THOMAS  Y.   CROWELL  &  CO. 
NEW  YORK 


THE 
CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 


BY 


CHARLES  EDWARD  JEFFERSON 

PASTOR  OF  BROADWAY  TABERNACLE 
NEW  YORK   CITY 


3>«C 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  Y.   CROWELL  &   COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


\ 


r^r^ 


Copyright,  1908, 
By  THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 


Published,  September,  1908. 


T4 


( 


PREFACE 

The  following  discourses  were  delivered  in  the 
Broadway  Tabernacle  on  the  Sunday  evenings 
between  January  first  and  Easter  of  the  winters  of 
1907  and  1908,  twelve  of  them  in  the  former  year 
and  fourteen  of  them  in  the  latter.  They  are  simple 
studies  in  the  character  of  Jesus,  the  twofold  purpose 
of  the  preacher  being  to  incite  professing  Christians 
to  a  deeper  devotion  to  their  Master,  and  to  awa- 
ken in  non-Christians  a  desire  to  know  more  of  the 
founder  of  the  Christian  church,  and  to  persuade 
them  to  become  his  followers.  The  congregations 
were  composed  largely  of  young  men,  not  a  few  of 
them  being  students.  It  is  in  response  to  numerous 
requests  of  these  young  men  that  the  sermons  are 
now  published.  No  preacher  speaks  entirely  as  he 
writes,  or  writes  altogether  as  he  speaks.  The 
sermons  have  been  allowed  to  retain  for  the  most 
part  the  unstudied  form  of  extemporaneous  discourse, 
not  even  the  repetitions  being  eliminated,  which  are 
inevitable  in  a  course  of  sermons  addressed  to  a 
congregation  changing  from  week  to  week.  Ques- 
tions of  authorship  and  text  were  all  left  untouched, 
as  having  but  slight  interest  for  a  majority  of  those 
who  heard  the  sermons.     After  a  study  of  a  con- 

V 


3040/1^ 


VI  PREFACE 

siderable  portion  of  the  voluminous  New  Testament 
criticism  of  the  last  thirty  years,  the  preacher  has  no 
hesitation  in  asserting  his  conviction  that  the  Gospels 
give  us  credible  history,  and  that  they,  while  not 
inerrant,  present  us  a  portrait  of  Jesus  sufficiently 
accurate  to  do  the  work  which  God  intends  it  shall 
do.  In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  written  to  the 
contrary,  the  preacher  has  found  no  solid  reason  for 
thinking  that  the  reliable  passages  in  the  Gospels  are 
few,  or  that  the  portrait  is  a  work  of  imagination 
inspired  and  colored  by  affection.  The  men  who 
wrote  the  Gospels  are  in  his  judgment  more  trust- 
worthy than  any  of  the  men  who  have  endeavored  to 
discredit  them.  The  two  opening  sermons  were 
preached,  one  at  the  beginning  of  1907,  the  other  at 
the  beginning  of  1908. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface      v 

CHAPTER 

I.    Introductory i 

II.    Reasons  for  our  Study     ....  13 

III.  Sources 27 

IV.  The  Strength  of  Jesus      ....  41 
V.    His  Sincerity 53 

VI.    His  Reasonableness 67 

VII.    His  Poise 83 

YUK    His  Originality 93 

D^    His  Narrowness 105 

X.    His  Breadth 119 

XI.    His  Trust 133 

XII.    His  Brotherliness 145 

XIII.  His  Optimism 157 

XIV.  His  Chivalry 171 

XV.    His  Firmness 187 

XVI.    His  Generosity 199 

XVII.    His  Candor 213 

XVIII.    His  Enthusiasm 227 

XIX.    His  Gladness 241 

XX._.  His  Humility 255 


Vll 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXI.  His  Patience 267 

XXJJ^  His  Courage 281 

XX nj.  His  Indignation 295 

XXiy.  His  Reverence 309 

XXV.  His  Holiness 323 

XXVI.  His  Greatness 337 


INTRODUCTORY 


I 

INTRODUCTORY 

"Behold  the  Man!" 

—  John  xix  :  5. 

Let  us  think  together  on  these  Sunday  evenings 
of  the  Character  of  Jesus.  You  will  observe  the 
limitation  of  the  subject.  Jesus  alone  is  too  great 
a  theme  to  be  dealt  with  in  a  course  of  lectures. 
There  are,  for  instance,  the  Ideas  of  Jesus,  the 
principles  which  he  enunciated  in  his  sermons  and 
illustrated  in  his  parables.  This  is  a  great  field, 
and  fascinating,  but  into  it  we  cannot  at  present  go. 
The  Doctrines  of  Jesus,  the  things  he  taught  of  God 
and  the  soul,  of  life  and  death,  of  duty  and  destiny : 
this  also  is  another  field  spacious  and  rewarding, 
but  into  it  we  cannot  enter.  We  might  think  of  the 
Person  of  Jesus,  meditate  upon  his  relations  to  the 
Father,  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  us,  and  ponder 
the  immeasurable  mystery  of  his  personality  —  this 
is  what  thoughtful  minds  have  ever  loved  to  do.  But 
upon  this  vast  field  of  thought  we  also  turn  our 
backs  in  order  that  we  may  give  ourselves  undividedly 
to  the  Character  of  Jesus.  By  "character"  I  mean 
the  sum  of  the  qualities  by  which  Jesus  is  dis- 

3 


4\ : :  / :  V : :  *  \  CMARAfT^k  OF  JESUS 

tinguished  from  other  men.  His  character  is  the 
sum  total  of  his  characteristics,  his  moral  traits,  the 
features  of  his  mind  and  heart  and  soul.  We  are 
to  think  about  his  quality,  his  temper,  his  disposi- 
tion, the  stamp  of  his  genius,  the  notes  of  his  spirit, 
and  the  form  of  his  conduct.  In  one  sense  our 
studies  will  be  elementary.  We  are  to  deal  with 
the  ABC's  of  Christian  learning.  This  is  the  logical 
beginning  of  all  earnest  study  into  the  meaning  of 
the  Christian  rehgion.  Before  we  are  rightly  pre- 
pared to  listen  to  the  ideas  of  Jesus  we  must  know 
something  of  what  Jesus  is.  The  significance  of 
what  a  man  says  depends  largely  upon  what  he  is. 
Two  men  may  say  precisely  the  same  thing ;  but  if 
one  is  known  to  be  a  fool,  his  words  make  no  im- 
pression on  us ;  if  the  other  is  known  to  be  wise  and 
good  we  give  him  close  and  sympathetic  attention. 
A  man  is  better  able  to  appreciate  the  ideas  of  Jesus 
if  he  first  of  all  becomes  acquainted  with  Jesus' 
character. 

To  begin  with  the  character  of  Jesus  is  to  adopt 
the  scientific  method  of  study.  The  scientist  of 
to-day  insists  upon  studying  phenomena.  What  he 
wants  is  data,  and  from  these  he  will  draw  his  con- 
clusions. No  scientist  can  begin  his  work  unless 
put  in  possession  of  definite  and  concrete  facts. 
There  is  a  general  opinion  abroad  that  Christianity 
is  something  very  much  in  the  air.  It  is  vague  and 
nebulous,  cloudy  and  indeterminate,  something 
beautiful  as  the  mist  with  the  morning  sun  playing 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

on  it,  but  also  like  the  mist  very  thin  and  high  above 
the  world  in  which  men  live.  But  in  this  course  of 
lectures  I  do  not  ask  you  to  think  about  visions  or 
conceptions,  principles  or  relations;  I  call  your 
attention  to  a  few  definite  and  clean-cut  facts.  This 
man  Jesus  was  an  historic  character.  He  lived  his 
life  upon  this  earth.  In  his  passage  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave  he  manifested  certain  traits  and  disposi- 
tions which  it  is  our  purpose  to  study.  If  we  were  to 
attempt  to  deal  with  all  his  sayings,  we  should  find 
many  of  them  hard  to  understand,  and  if  we  should 
attempt  to  grapple  with  his  personality,  we  should 
find  ourselves  face  to  face  with  mysteries  too  deep 
to  be  fathomed;  but  in  dealing  with  his  character 
we  are  handling  something  concrete  and  compre- 
hensible. Let  us  place  ourselves  before  him  and 
permit  him  to  make  upon  us  whatsoever  impression 
he  will. 

Not  only  is  this  the  scientific  method,  it  is  also  the 
New  Testament  method.  It  was  just  in  this  manner 
that  the  disciples  came  to  know  Jesus.  They  did 
not  begin  with  the  mystery  of  his  person,  nor  did 
they  begin  with  sayings  which  were  hard  for  them  to 
understand.  They  began  simply  by  coming  near 
him,  looking  at  him  with  their  eyes,  listening  to 
him  with  their  ears.  It  is  with  a  shout  of  exulta- 
tion that  the  beloved  apostle  in  the  first  of  his  letters 
says,  "We  handled  him  with  our  hands."  It  would 
seem  from  the  New  Testament  that  Jesus  desires 
men  to  come  to  the  truth  which  he  is  to  give  to  the 


6  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

world  by  a  knowledge  of  his  character.  When  two 
young  men  one  day  followed  him  along  the  bank  of 
the  Jordan,  and  he  turned  upon  them  and  said: 
"Whom  are  you  looking  for?"  and  they  replied, 
"Where  do  you  live?"  his  answer  was,  "Come  and 
see."  They  remained  with  him  for  the  rest  of  the 
day,  and  the  result  of  their  first  meeting  was  that 
they  wanted  their  comrades  to  come  and  see  him 
also.  And  from  that  day  to  this  the  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity has  advanced  in  the  world  simply  because 
those  who  have  already  seen  him  have  wanted  others 
to  come  and  share  their  experience. 

If  this  was  the  method  of  approach  to  Christianity 
in  the  first  century,  why  is  it  not  the  best  approach 
for  our  time?  Christianity  in  the  course  of  its 
development  has  taken  on  many  forms  and  has 
gathered  up  into  itself  many  things  which  are  non- 
essential. The  result  is  that  thousands  are  be- 
wildered, not  knowing  what  to  think  or  what  to  do. 
Many  have  been  ofifended  by  Christianity  because 
they  have  attempted  to  enter  it  through  the  eccle- 
siastical door.  They  have  come  to  the  religion  of 
Jesus  through  some  professing  Christian  who  has 
been  inconsistent  or  hypocritical,  and  simply  one 
such  disastrous  experience  is  sufficient  sometimes 
to  keep  a  man  away  from  Christ  through  his  entire 
life.  Sometimes  it  is  no  individual  Christian,  but  the 
local  church  as  a  body  that  gives  the  offence.  It 
may  be  that  the  church  is  dead  or  that  its  leading 
men  are  corrupt  or  that  its  preacher  is  ignorant  and 


y 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

does  not  have  the  Christian  spirit  or  the  Christian 
outlook ;  in  which  case  the  total  impression  made  by 
the  church  is  disastrous,  and  the  soul  is  repelled. 
There  are  many  men  who  are  not  Christians  to-day 
because  it  was  their  peculiar  misfortune  to  come  at  a 
critical  period  in  their  life  in  contact  with  a  church 
which  was  lacking  in  Christian  sympathy  and 
devotion.  There  are  others  who  have  attempted 
to  get  into  Christianity  through  the  dogmatic  door. 
They  have  come  to  the  dogmatic  statements  of  the 
Christian  church,  the  doctrines  formulated  by 
church  councils  and  theologians,  and  by  these  they 
have  been  offended.  Their  reason  has  been  re- 
pelled and  their  heart  has  been  chilled.  Let  me 
suggest  that  there  is  another  door:  the  character 
of  Jesus.  Neither  professing  Christians  nor  dog- 
matic statements  are  the  door  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. The  founder  of  Christianity  says:  "I  am 
the  Door."  It  may  be  that  some  man  in  the  con- 
gregation who  has  been  made  cynical  by  professing 
Christians,  or  sceptical  by  church  dogmas  may  find 
that  he  is  neither  sceptical  nor  cynical  after  he  has 
studied  the  character  of  Jesus.  For  after  all,  to  be 
a  Christian  is  not  to  be  like  other  professing  Chris- 
tians, or  to  accept  ecclesiastical  propositions;  to  be 
a  Christian  is  to  admire  Jesus  so  sincerely  and  so 
fervently  that  the  whole  life  goes  out  to  him  in  an 
aspiration  to  be  like  him. 

This  is  a  very  opportune  time  in  which  to  study 
the  character  of  Jesus  because  it  is  in  our  day  and 


8  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

generation  that  he  has  appeared  with  new  glory 
before  the  eyes  of  the  world.  We  who  are  now 
living  can  know  him,  if  we  will,  better  than  he  has 
ever  been  known  since  the  days  of  the  apostles. 
There  have  been  three  stupendous  pieces  of  work 
accomplished  within  the  last  seventy  years.  Two 
of  them  are  well  known  to  everybody,  the  third  is 
recognized  by  comparatively  few.  The  first  mag- 
nificent accomplishment  of  the  last  seventy  years 
is  the  construction  of  the  palace  of  science.  This 
great  enterprise  has  been  carried  forward  by  a 
host  of  men  of  genius  who  have  thrown  into  their 
work  the  heroism  of  prophets  and  the  enthusiasm  of 
apostles.  Almost  the  entire  structure  of  the  palace 
of  science  has  been  built  up  within  the  last  seventy 
years.  How  glorious,  how  dazzling  it  is,  I  need  not 
attempt  to  describe,  for  it  has  caught  and  holds  the 
eyes  of  the  world.  The  second  great  achievement 
of  the  last  seventy  years  is  the  development  of 
material  civilization.  Within  these  years  have 
come  the  steamship,  the  railroad,  the  telegraph,  the 
telephone,  and  a  thousand  other  inventions  by  means 
of  which  the  face  of  the  world  has  been  transformed 
and  the  habits  of  men  have  been  revolutionized. 
This  is  a  miracle  which  is  also  known  to  all.  But 
there  is  a  third  piece  of  work  even  more  wonderful 
and  more  far-reaching  in  its  effects  than  these  other 
two,  and  that  is  the  work  which  has  been  done  by 
a  great  army  of  scholars  on  both  sides  the  sea  in 
bringing  Jesus  of  Nazareth  out  of  the  shadows  and 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

out  of  the  clouds  in  which  he  had  been  hidden,  and 
placing  him  once  more  before  the  world. 

It  was  in  1835  that  Strauss  published  his  first 
edition  of  the  "Life  of  Jesus,"  and  from  that  day 
to  this  the  world  has  been  studying  the  character  of 
the  Man  of  Galilee  with  an  interest  which  has  been 
constantly  deepening,  and  with  a  zeal  that  shows  no 
abatement.  The  Gospels  have  been  subjected  to  a 
scrutiny  which  has  been  given  to  no  other  writings. 
The  libraries  and  the  mounds  and  the  tombs  have 
been  ransacked  for  manuscripts.  The  manuscripts 
have  been  brought  together  and  carefully  compared 
and  each  minutest  variation  has  been  noted  and 
pondered.  Every  paragraph  has  been  sifted  and  |  J 
every  sentence  has  been  weighed,  every  word  has 
been  analyzed  and  every  syllable  has  been  examined 
and  cross  questioned.  The  amount  of  labor  be- 
stowed upon  the  New  Testament  within  the  last 
seventy  years  is  amazing  and  incalculable.  Men 
have  not  been  contented  with  studying  the  manu- 
scripts, they  have  studied  the  land  in  which  Jesus 
lived;  they  have  measured  it  from  north  to  south 
and  from  east  to  west  with  a  surveyor's  chain.)  v 
They  have  taken  the  heights  of  the  hills  and  the 
mountains,  and  the  depths  of  the  rivers  and  seas. 
With  pick  and  shovel,  they  have  gone  down  into 
the  earth  in  search  of  material  to  throw  additional 
rays  of  light  upon  this  man  who  has  made  the  land 
"Holy."  The  first  century  of  our  era  has  been 
studied  as  no  other  century  since  time  began.    The 


10  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

customs  of  the  people,  their  clothing,  their  houses, 
every  feature  of  their  social  and  political  and  eccle- 
siastical life,  everything  that  they  read  and  every- 
thing that  they  said,  and  everything  that  they  did 
has  been  analyzed,  discussed,  explained,  illustrated, 
photographed,  and  scattered  broadcast  in  the  hope 
that  this  might  bring  men  closer  to  Jesus.  The 
civilization  of  the  first  century  in  Palestine  has  been 
subjected  to  a  scrutiny  and  analysis  vi^hich  no  other 
civilization  has  ever  known.  The  printing-presses 
on  both  sides  the  sea  are  flooding  the  world  with 
books  about  the  life  and  the  times  of  Jesus.  And 
the  result  is  he  looms  colossal  before  the  eyes  of  the 
world.  It  is  not  simply  the  church  that  sees  him ; 
all  men  can  see  him  now.  He  has  broken  out  of 
ecclesiastical  circles ;  he  walks  through  all  cities  and 
lands.  All  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  have  come 
to  admire  him.  Those  who  despise  the  church 
respect  him,  those  who  deny  Christian  dogmas  bow 
before  him.  The  great  unchurched  classes  who 
care  nothing  for  anthems  or  sermons  break  into  ap- 
plause at  the  mention  of  his  name.  Many  of  them 
see  him  dimly,  many  of  them  have  caught  only  a 
glimpse  of  his  face  and  his  heart,  but  everybody 
knows  that  he  is  the  man  who  went  about  doing 
good.  Everywhere  his  name  is  reverenced.  It  is 
fitting  that  in  these  opening  years  of  the  new  century 
we  should  endeavor  to  gain  a  clearer  apprehension 
of  the  range  of  his  mind  and  the  reach  of  his  heart. 
How  are  we  to  get  our  information?    There  are 


INTRODUCTORY  \  i 

six  channels  through  which  Hght  will  come.  We 
may  come  to  know  him  through  the  words  he  spoke, 
through  the  deeds  he  did,  and  also  through  his  silences. 
We  may  know  him  also  by  the  impression  which  he 
made  first  upon  his  friends  and  secondly  upon  his 
foes,  and  thirdly  upon  the  general  body  of  his 
contemporaries. 

It  awes  me  when  I  think  of  the  great  company  that 
no  man  can  number  to  which  I  ask  you  to  join  your- 
selves in  this  study  of  the  character  of  Jesus.  Let 
your  mind  roam  over  the  last  nineteen  hundred  years, 
and  think  of  the  artists  who  have  stood  before  him, 
seeing  in  him  new  revelations  of  beauty;  think  of 
the  poets  who  have  stood  before  him  and  have  caught 
inspiration  for  their  songs;  think  of  the  musicians 
who  have  stood  before  him  and  who  have  worked 
the  impression  which  he  made  upon  them  into  tones 
which  lift  the  heart  and  set  it  dreaming;  think  of 
the  philosophers  who  have  stood  before  him  and 
meditated  on  the  great  ideas  which  found  expression 
on  his  lips ;  think  of  the  unlettered  men  and  women, 
the  great  crowd  of  peasants,  plain  working  people, 
descendants  of  the  shepherds  that  heard  the  angels 
singing,  who  have  bowed  in  adoration  before  him 
and  found  rest  from  their  weariness  and  strength 
in  their  weakness.  And  then  let  your  mind  run 
out  into  the  centuries  that  are  coming  and  think  of 
the  countless  generations  of  men  and  women  who 
are  still  to  stand  before  this  matchless  figure,  drink- 
ing in  inspiration  with  which  to  live  their  life  and 


12  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

do  their  work.  If  you  can  see  in  your  imagination 
this  great  procession  which  has  been  and  the  greater 
procession  which  is  yet  to  be,  you  will  take  your 
places  with  reverent  spirit  as  once  again  we  at- 
tempt to  study  the  character  of  the  man  who  com- 
pels the  heart  to  cry  out,  "Master!" 


n 

REASONS  FOR  OUR  STUDY 


n 

REASONS  FOR  OUR  STUDY 

"Come  and  see." 

—  John  i  :  46. 

I  INVITE  you  to  contemplate  with  me  the  chaxac-  \ 
ter  of  Jesus.    Many  of  you  have  studied  him  under 
the  leadership  of  others,  come  with  me  for  a  little       \ 
interval  and  let  us  study  him  again.     The  time  is        \ 
ripe  for  a  restudy  of  his  character  and  career.    We 
have  fallen  upon  distracted  and  distracting  days. 
The  world  is  crying  out  for  something,  it  scarce 
knows  what.    Wealth  has  come,  but  the  heart  is 
hungry ;  knowledge  has  come,  but  life  for  many  has 
slipped  into  a  riddle  and  delusion.     The  world  is 
filled  with  the  inventions  of  human  skill  and  genius, 
but  there  is  a  vast  emptiness  which  neither  science 
nor  art  is  able  to  fill.  ^''' 

One  of  the  notes  of  twentieth  century  life  is  dis- 
content. Some  of  us  are  discontented  with  ourselves. 
We  are  restless,  unsatisfied,  bewildered.  We  carry 
with  us  a  consciousness  of  failure.  We  feel  we  are 
falling  short  of  what  we  ought  to  be.  Life  in  spite 
of  our  efforts  is  meagre  and  disappointing.  Loaded 
with  many  possessions  we  cry,  **What  lack  I  yet?" 
It  may  be  wise,  therefore,  to  turn  aside  from  the  path 

15 


l6  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

we  have  been  travelling  and  listen  for  a  season  to 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  It  may  be  that  he  has  the  secret 
for  which  we  have  been  searching.  On  opening 
the  New  Testament  the  first  face  which  fronts  us  is 
his  and  the  first  words  which  greet  us  come  from  his 
lips.  He  says,  ''Come  unto  me  and  I  will  give  you 
rest,  I  am  the  bread  of  life,  I  am  the  Light  of  the 
world,  If  any  man  thirst  let  him  come  unto  me  and 
drink.  My  peace  I  give  unto  you.  You  shall  receive 
power.  You  shall  rejoice."  Bread  and  water,  light 
and  rest  and  peace  and  power  and  joy,  are  these  not 
the  seven  elemental  blessings  which  make  human 
life  complete?  If  this  man  promises  to  give  us  the 
things  which  the  soul  most  desires,  it  is  worth  while 
to  study  his  method  and  find  out,  if  we  can,  how  his 
proffered  gifts  can  be  most  speedily  obtained.  On 
approaching  him  we  hear  him  saying:  "Follow  me! 
Learn  of  me!  Eat  me!  Abide  in  me!"  It  would 
seem  that  he  offers  us  all  good  things  on  condition 
that  we  become  like  him.  But  what  is  he  like? 
What  is  his  disposition,  temper,  attitude,  nature? 
Surely  all  who  are  discontented  with  themselves  will 
want  to  study  the  character  of  Jesus. 

There  are  others  of  us  who  are  discontented,  not 
so  much  with  ourselves  as  with  the  world.  The  time 
is  out  of  joint,  and  we  are  sick  at  heart  because  no 
one  seems  to  be  wise  or  strong  enough  to  set  it  right. 
Government  is  corrupt,  the  church  seems  dead  or 
dying,  the  home  is  a  failure  or  scandal,  society  is 
superficial  and  tainted,  the  social  order  is  ready  for 


REASONS  FOR   OUR  STUDY  17 

the  burning,  the  economic  system  is  a  burden  and 
curse,  the  whole  framework  of  the  world  needs  to  be 
reconstructed,  and,  alas,  who  is  sufficient  for  so 
herculean  a  task?  The  men  with  panaceas  are 
loud-mouthed  and  confident,  the  prophets  of  reform 
are  vociferous  and  ubiquitous,  but  unfortunately 
they  do  not  agree  among  themselves,  and  the  reme- 
dies when  applied  are  impotent  to  cure.  The  medi- 
cines do  not  seem  to  be  powerful  enough,  and  the 
doctors  stand  by  the  bedside  of  feverish  and  deliri- 
ous humanity,  outwitted,  discredited,  dumfounded. 
Modern  civilization  has  become  a  tower  of  Babel, 
and  the  air  is  so  filled  with  theories  of  social  ameliora- 
tion and  programmes  of  industrial  reorganization  that 
the  clearest  headed  are  bewildered  by  the  din  and 
tumult,  not  knowing  in  which  direction  deliverance 
must  be  sought. 

When  we  open  our  New  Testament,  we  find  a 
man  looking  at  us  who  although  not  a  professional 
revolutionist  has  been  the  cause  of  many  revolutions, 
and  who  although  not  a  disturber  of  the  peace  has 
repeatedly  turned  the  world  upside  down.  He  is 
not  numbered  among  the  radicals  because  in  his 
radicahsm  he  outstrips  them  all.  He  dares  to 
reverse  all  human  standards,  confounds  the  wise  by 
things  which  are  foolish  and  confounds  things  which 
are  mighty  by  the  things  which  are  weak.  He  has 
much  to  say  about  authority  and  power,  and  it  is 
his  claim  that  he  can  make  all  things  new.  The 
writers  of  history  have  confessed  that  he  overturned 


1 8  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  Roman  Empire  and  has  given  to  Europe  and 
America  a  civilization  unlike  any  which  the  world 
has  ever  known.  If  his  ideas  have  in  them  the  force 
of  dynamite,  and  if  his  personality  has  power  to 
change  the  policy  of  empires  and  even  the  temper  of 
the  human  heart,  it  may  be  that  this  man  is  the  very 
man  the  modern  world  is  looking  for  in  its  wild  quest 
for  a  way  of  deliverance  from  its  miseries  and  woes. 
Surely  all  of  those  who  are  sick  of  the  world  as  it  is 
and  who  long  for  the  coming  of  a  world  which  shall 
be  better,  must,  if  they  are  wise,  come  to  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  for  his  secret  of  pulling  down  the  strong- 
holds of  iniquity  and  establishing  righteousness 
and  peace  in  the  earth. 

When  we  study  his  method,  we  discover  that  his 
supreme  concern  is  for  the  rightness  of  heart  of  the 
individual  man.  This  moulder  of  empires  gives 
himself  to  the  task  of  moulding  individual  men. 
This  arch  revolutionist  starts  his  conflagrations  in 
the  individual  soul.  He  draws  one  man  to  him, 
infuses  into  him  a  new  spirit,  sends  him  after  one 
brother  man,  who  in  time  goes  after  a  third  man, 
and  this  third  man  after  a  fourth,  and  thus  does  he 
weld  a  chain  by  means  of  which  Caesar  shall  be 
dragged  from  his  throne.  Strange  as  it  may  seem, 
he  has  nothing  to  say  about  heredity,  and  stranger 
still  nothing  to  say  about  environment.  He  keeps 
his  eyes  upon  the  soul,  and  by  changing  this  he  alters 
the  environment  and  also  the  currents  of  the  blood 
down  through  many  generations .    When  we  speak  of 


/REASONS  FOR   OUR  STUDY  19 

environment,  we  think  of  the  physical  surroundings : 
the  paving  in  the  street,  the  sewerage,'  the  architecture 
of  the  houses,  and  the  lighting  of  the  rooms.  We 
are  convinced  that  with  better  sewerage  and  better 
ventilation  and  better  lighting  the  plague  of  humanity 
would  be  speedily  abated.  But  this  Reformer  of 
Nazareth  acts  and  speaks  as  though  environment 
is  not  a  matter  of  brick  and  plaster  but  rather  of 
human  minds  and  hearts.  Men  are  made  what  they 
are,  not  by  pavements  and  houses,  but  by  the  men 
among  whom  they  live.  Would  you  change  the 
environment,  then  begin  by  a  transformation  of 
men ;  and  would  you  transform  men,  then  begin  by 
a  transformation  of  some  particular  man.  It  is 
by  the  changing  of  the  character  of  a  man  that  we 
change  the  character  of  other  men,  and  by  changing 
the  character  of  many  men  we  change  the  character 
of  institutions  and  ultimately  of  empires  and  civiliza- 
tions. When  Jesus  says,  **  Behold  I  make  all  things 
new,"  he  lays  his  hand  on  the  heart  of  a  man.  It 
is  out  of  the  heart  the  demons  proceed  which  tear 
humanity  to  pieces,  and  it  is  out  of  the  heart  that 
the  angels  come  which  restore  the  beauty  and  peace 
of  Paradise. 

Here  then  is  Jesus'  own  secret  for  making  an 
old  world  over.  He  will  introduce  golden  ages 
by  giving  individuals  a  character  like  his  own. 
His  character  is  a  form  of  power  mightier  than  the 
legions  of  Caesar  or  the  wisdom  of  the  greatest  of 
the  schools.    We  who  are  most  discontented  with 


20  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  world  and  most  eager  to  banish  its  tyrannies  and 
abuses  may  profitably  give  our  days  and  our  nights 
to  the  study  of  the  character  of  Jesus,  for  through 
this  the  burdened  world  is  to  pass  forward  into  a 
brighter  day.  There  are  many  fussy  and  noisy 
workers,  many  a  blatant  and  spectacular  leader, 
reformers  are  often  plausible  and  dashing,  and 
revolutionists  impress  us  by  their  schemes  of  creat- 
ing a  world  which  is  new,  but  after  all  there  is  no 
more  effective  worker  for  the  world's  redemption 
than  the  man  or  woman  who  in  high  or  obscure 
places,  strives,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  to  per- 
suade men  to  conform  their  lives  to  the  pattern 
presented  to  us  in  the  character  of  Jesus;  and  no 
one  is  advancing  so  swiftly  toward  the  golden  age 
as  the  man  or  woman  who  by  prayer  and  daily 
effort  endeavors  to  build  up  in  mind  and  spirit  the 
virtues  and  graces  of  the  Man  of  Galilee. 

Here  then  we  find  the  supreme  mission  of  the 
Christian  clergyman :  it  is  to  help  men  to  fall  in  love 
with  the  character  of  Jesus.  The  Bible  is  an  invalu- 
able book  chiefly  because  it  contains  a  portrait  of 
Jesus.  The  New  Testament  is  immeasurably  supe- 
rior to  the  Old  because  in  the  New  Testament  we 
have  the  face  of  Jesus.  The  holy  of  holies  of  the 
New  Testament  is  the  Gospels  because  it  is  here  we* 
look  directly  into  the  eyes  of  Jesus.  We  often  speak 
of  the  Gospel :  What  is  it  ?    Jesus ! 

Let  us  come  now  a  little  closer  and  ask,  What  is  it 
in  Jesus  which  is  most  worth  our  study?    A  deal  of 


REASONS  FOR   OUR  STUDY  21 

attention  is  being  given  to  the  circumstances  which 
formed  the  framework  of  his  earthly  life.  Many- 
men  are  working  on  the  chronology  and  others  are 
at  work  on  the  geography,  and  others  are  interested 
in  the  robe  and  the  turban  and  the  sandals.  Pho- 
tographers have  photographed  every  landscape  on 
which  he  ever  looked,  and  every  scene  connected  with 
his  work  or  career.  Painters  have  transferred  the 
Palestinian  fields  and  lakes  and  skies  to  canvas,  and 
stereopticon  lecturers  have  made  the  Holy  Land 
the  most  familiar  spot  on  earth.  Writers  of  many) 
grades  have  flooded  the  world  with  descriptions  of 
customs  and  houses,  of  fashions  and  ceremonies,  and 
amid  such  a  mass  of  drapery  and  upholstery  we  are 
in  danger  of  losing  the  man  Jesus.  We  may  become 
so  interested  in  the  fringes  and  tassels  of  his  outer 
life  as  to  miss  the  secret  which  his  heart  has  to  tell. 
Many  an  hour  has  been  spent  upon  the  outer  trap- 
pings of  Jesus'  life  which  might  better  have  been 
employed  in  the  earnest  study  of  his  mind  and 
heart.  Palestine  has  no  interest  for  us  except  in 
so  far  as  it  assists  us  to  understand  what  Jesus  was 
and  did.  The  temporal  and  local  and  provincial 
may  be  interesting,  but  it  is  not  important.  It  is 
the  character  of  Jesus  which  has  unique  and  endless 
significance,  and  to  this  then  every  earnest  mind 
and  heart  should  turn.  The  pictures  have  no  value 
unless  they  carry  us  deeper  into  the  soul  of  the  man. 
It  is  surprising  what  meagre  materials  we  have  to 
deal  with  in  the  study  of  Jesus.    The  New  Testament 


22  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

writers  were  not  interested  in  trifles.  They  cared 
nothing  for  his  stature,  the  clothes  he  wore  or  the 
houses  he  Hved  in.  He  had  none  of  the  things  which 
biographers  are  wont  to  expatiate  upon  to  the  extent 
of  many  chapters.  He  had  no  lineage  to  boast  of. 
His  friends  were  all  obscure.  He  held  no  office 
either  in  church  or  state.  He  had  no  prestige  of 
wealth  and  no  repute  for  learning.  He  was  bom  in 
a  stable,  worked  in  a  carpenter's  shop,  taught  for 
three  years,  and  then  died  on  a  cross.  The  external 
is  reduced  to  its  lowest,  circumstances  are  common- 
place and  meagre,  the  framework  of  life  is  narrow 
and  ungilded.  The  New  Testament  was  written  by 
men  who  were  determined  that  we  should  fix  our 
eyes  on  the  man.  They  wish  us  to  catch  the  beat  of 
his  heart,  the  swing  of  his  mind,  the  orbit  of  his 
ideas.  Everything  is  minimized  and  subordinated 
to  that  which  is  central  and  all  important,  the  tex- 
ture of  his  spirit  and  the  attitude  of  his  personality. 
With  one  accord  they  cry,  "  Behold  the  man  ! "  They 
want  us  to  know  how  he  looked  at  things,  how  he 
felt  toward  things,  and  how  things  affected  him. 
In  a  word,  they  want  us  to  know  his  character. 
Let  us  accept  their  invitation  and  come  and  see. 

Some  of  us  have  studied  this  man  Jesus  for  many 
years.  It  is  we  who  have  the  keenest  desire  to  study 
him  again.  We  shall  find  in  him  now  things  which 
we  have  never  seen  before.  The  eyes  are  always 
changing  and  the  heart  expands  with  the  increase 
of  the  years.    We  climb  to  higher  levels  of  knowl- 


REASONS  FOR  OUR  STUDY  23 

edge  through  study  and  experience.  The  time  will 
never  come  when  we  shall  not  relish  the  study  of 
this  man.  He  is  the  way  to  God.  It  is  impossible 
to  become  too  familiar  with  the  way.  He  is  the  ex- 
press image  of  the  Father's  person.  The  more  we 
study  him  the  richer  is  our  knowledge  of  the  heart 
of  God.  He  has  declared  the  Father.  The  more 
fully  we  understand  him  the  deeper  we  see  into  the 
heart  of  Deity.  If  he  and  the  Father  are  one,  then 
to  know  him  is  indeed  life  eternal.  If  he  is  the 
author  and  finisher  of  faith,  we  need  to  see  his  un- 
clouded face  if  we  are  to  run  with  patience  the  race 
that  is  set  before  us.  If  we  are  to  be  changed  from 
character  to  character  by  looking  at  his  character, 
then  every  hour  we  spend  in  making  that  character 
clear  and  beautiful  to  our  heart  is  blessed.  The  be- 
loved disciple  used  to  say,  "We  beheld  his  glory." 
They  gazed  upon  him  as  he  worked  and  talked  and 
sang  and  prayed,  and  the  very  memory  of  what  they 
saw  lifted  Ufe  to  new  altitudes  and  dimensions. 
The  ripest  and  most  experienced  Christians  are 
readiest  to  accept  the  invitation,  ''Come  and  see." 

Some  of  us  have  studied  this  portrait  only  a  little. 
Jesus  is  a  name,  but  as  a  person  he  is  shadowy  and 
unreal.  His  face  has  become  obscured.  Our  heart 
does  not  feel  his  power.  We  are  not  indifferent  to 
him,  but  we  have  no  keen  sense  of  loyalty  to  him, 
no  purifying  consciousness  of  adoration.  We  need 
to  study  him  afresh.  It  may  be  that  as  we  study 
him  he  will  step  out  of  the  picture  and  take  his 


24  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

place  by  our  side.  Not  until  we  know  him  as  a 
comrade  do  we  get  from  him  what  he  has  to  give. 
Because  his  face  is  dim  we  are  often  depressed  and 
defeated.  We  are  always  faint  in  life's  hard  places 
unless  we  are  close  enough  to  catch  the  light  of  his 
eye  and  feel  the  strong  beating  of  his  unconquerable 
heart.  It  may  be  that  to  some  of  us  he  has  been 
petrified  into  a  dogma.  It  is  a  great  day  for  the  soul 
when  Jesus  stands  before  it  for  the  first  time  as  a 
man.  Never  shall  I  forget  when  for  the  first  time 
he  became  human  to  me.  It  was  on  a  Saturday 
evening  when  a  great  teacher  was  expounding  the 
words,  "Father,  save  me  from  this  hour."  In  a 
flash  I  saw  Jesus  shrinking,  and  the  fountains  of  my 
heart  were  opened. 

Some  of  us  have  scarcely  studied  him  at  all.  All 
we  know  we  know  by  hearsay.  We  are  prejudiced 
against  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  His  face  has  been 
distorted  partly  by  the  misrepresentations  of  others 
and  partly  by  our  own  idiosyncrasies.  It  may  be 
that  during  this  study  some  of  us  shall  see  him  for 
the  first  time  as  he  is. 

There  are  those  who  do  not  like  metaphysics; 
let  them  come  and  look  upon  a  full-statured  man. 
They  do  not  care  for  doctrine,  let  them  study  a  life. 
They  are  not  interested  in  dogma,  let  them  fix  their 
gaze  upon  a  person.  If  the  word  "revelation"  has 
had  to  them  a  mysterious  or  theological  sound,  let 
them  contemplate  the  crowning  revelation  —  the 
revelation  made  in  the  character  of  a  man. 


REASONS  FOR   OUR  STUDY  25 

We  shall  not  discuss  the  question  how  the  Gospel 
portrait  got  here.  It  is  enough  for  our  present  pur- 
pose to  know  that  it  is  here.  It  has  been  in  the  world 
for  nearly  nineteen  hundred  years  and  through  all 
that  period  nothing  has  been  added  to  it  and  nothing 
has  been  taken  away.  If  any  one  should  care  to 
point  out  minor  defects  in  the  workmanship,  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  the  portrait  does  its  work.  It 
nourishes  faith  in  God.  It  keeps  the  fires  of  hope 
and  gladness  burning  on  the  altar.  Men  have 
various  theories  of  the  portrait  and  make  divers 
criticisms  of  it,  but  the  world  is  dominated  by  it. 
I  ask  you  to  look  at  it.  Other  men  are  looking  at  it. 
They  are  looking  at  it  all  round  the  globe.  Millions 
feel  while  looking  at  it  that  in  this  portrait  they  get 
the  largest  disclosures  of  the  mind  and  purpose  of  the 
Eternal.  It  is  indisputable  that  this  portrait  draws 
many  hearts  nearer  to  God.  It  may  draw  you. 
Only  look  at  it.  Other  things  are  passing,  but  this 
portrait  is  a  reality  which  abides.  Many  a  treasure 
has  been  melted  in  the  crucible,  but  not  this.  In 
many  circles  the  Bible  has  been  growing  less  and 
the  church  also  has  been  dwindling,  but  everywhere 
the  wide  world  over  the  character  of  Jesus  has  been 
looming  larger  before  the  eyes  of  thinking  men.  By 
looking  at  it,  it  may  grow  also  upon  you. 

And  may  I  ask  you  also  to  pray  while  you  look. 
The  depth  to  which  you  see  into  a  mind  or  heart 
depends  upon  what  you  bring  with  you  to  the  con- 
templation of  it.    You  cannot  appreciate  the  master- 


26  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

piece  of  a  musician  unless  you  have  music  in  you, 
or  the  painting  of  an  artist  unless  you  have  in  you 
something  of  the  temperament  which  the  artist  has, 
nor  can  you  understand  a  character  unless  you  are 
akin  to  it  in  the  deepest  tendencies  and  aspirations 
of  your  being.  The  masters  of  music  and  art  and 
life  reveal  themselves  only  to  those  who  in  some 
measure  share  their  spirit.  Would  you  study  the 
character  of  Jesus  with  largest  profit,  you  must 
respond  to  that  which  was  dominant  in  his  life.  He 
was  preeminently  a  man  of  prayer.  His  was  the 
reverent  heart  and  his  look  was  ever  upward.  They 
who  pray  breathe  the  atmosphere  in  which  he  lived 
and  take  the  attitude  by  which  they  are  best  fitted 
to  understand  his  deeds  and  sayings.  In  studying 
a  person  spiritual  harmony  is  everything.  James 
lived  under  the  same  roof  with  Jesus  but  did  not 
understand  him.  Paul  lived  far  from  him  but  under- 
stood him  completely.  Understanding  souls  is  not 
a  matter  of  physical  proximity  or  intellectual  effort : 
everything  depends  on  insight  and  spiritual  sym- 
pathy. In  studying  Jesus  men  ought  always  to 
pray  and  not  to  faint. 


Ill 

SOURCES 


m 

SOURCES 

"These  are  written  that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God."  —  John  xx :  31. 

Where  can  we  find  a  subject  more  interesting 
than  the  Character  of  Jesus?  It  is  fascinating  to 
every  human  being  who  has  the  slightest  ambition 
to  advance  in  culture,  or  who  has  the  smallest  ca- 
pacity for  apprehending  things  which  are  of  deep 
and  enduring  significance.  Simply  as  a  piece  of 
biography  what  a  wonderful  story  this  is,  how  ex- 
citing his  life,  how  tragic  his  death!  Whether  a 
man  is  a  Christian  or  not  he  must,  unless  thoroughly 
hardened  by  prejudice,  take  an  interest  in  the  life  of 
Jesus.  No  man  or  woman  of  intellect  can  remain 
unmoved  by  the  death  of  Socrates.  The  prison  in 
which  he  died  is  one  of  the  holy  places  of  history. 
So  long  as  men  have  minds  to  think  and  hearts  to 
pity,  they  will  stand  in  awe  before  the  old  Greek 
philosopher  while  he  drains  the  fatal  cup.  But  the 
death  of  Jesus  is  more  tragic  than  the  death  of 
Socrates.  Who  is  not  interested  in  the  death  of 
Julius  Caesar?  When  will  Mark  Antony's  speech 
cease  to  stir  the  blood  ?  So  long  as  men  are  human 
they  will  stand  awestruck  in  the  presence  of  that 

29 


30  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

great  tragedy  enacted  in  the  Roman  capitol.  But 
the  death  of  Jesus  is  more  tragic  than  the  death  of 
Caesar.  Moreover,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  start- 
>ing  point  of  a  thousand  influences.  The  whole 
world  of  the  last  nineteen  hundred  years  becomes 
unintelligible  unless  one  knows  something  about  him. 
How  can  you  understand  the  great  art  galleries  of 
the  world,  filled  as  they  are  with  pictures  of  his  face, 
and  pictures  of  his  mother,  and  pictures  of  his  disci- 
ples, unless  you  know  who  he  was  and  what  he  said 
and  what  he  accomplished?  Step  out  of  the  art 
galleries  into  the  libraries  and  how  will  you  under- 
stand the  great  books  of  history  unless  you  are 
familiar  with  his  career,  for  every  book  is  full  of  his 
name.  Step  out  of  the  world  of  books  into  the 
world  of  men  and  things,  walk  along  the  streets, 
how  will  you  account  for  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral 
and  the  Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine;  and  all 
the  hundreds  of  churches  and  missions  scattered 
over  this  land  unless  you  know  something  of  the 
man  from  whose  heart  they  proceeded  and  by  whose 
name  they  are  known.  We  have  a  theme  that  must 
be  of  interest  to  every  human  being. 

But  as  soon  as  we  come  to  the  careful  study  of  the 
life  of  Jesus,  we  are  subjected  to  a  series  of  surprises. 
The  first  surprise  is  that  the  biography  of  this  man 
is  confined  within  such  narrow  limits.  If  you  wish 
to  study  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  you  must  con- 
sult many  volumes.  The  life  of  George  Washington 
cannot  easily  be  put  into  one  book.    Hundreds  of 


SOURCES  31 

volumes  have  been  written  about  Napoleon  and 
Frederick  the  Great  and  Caesar.  But  the  biography 
of  Jesus  is  confined  to  one  little  book  that  can  be 
bought  for  six  cents  and  carried  in  the  pocket.  This 
is  the  surprising  thing  that  all  the  story  of  his  life 
is  contained  in  this  one  book.  There  were  many 
Greek  writers  living  in  the  days  of  Jesus,  but  not 
one  of  them  wrote  his  life,  so  far  as  any  scholar 
knows.  Not  a  scrap  of  Jesus'  biography  at  the  hands 
of  a  Greek  poet  or  historian  has  come  down  to  us. 
There  were  many  Roman  writers  living  when  Jesus 
preached  in  Palestine,  they  were  writing  on  many 
different  personages  and  on  manifold  subjects,  but 
not  one  of  them  so  far  as  we  know  cared  to  sketch 
this  man  Jesus.  There  were  many  professional 
Jewish  writers  living  in  Jesus'  day,  but  so  far  as  we 
know  not  one  of  them  took  the  trouble  to  write  the 
story  of  Jesus'  life.  This  is  remarkable !  To  be 
sure,  there  are  apocryphal  gospels  and  apocryphal 
acts  and  apocryphal  epistles  and  apocalypses,  but 
no  one  of  these,  nor  do  all  of  them  together,  throw 
any  light  on  the  character  of  Jesus  which  is  not 
furnished  by  our  New  Testament.  Everything  that 
is  positively  known  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  con- 
fined between  the  covers  of  the  New  Testament. 
For  years  men  have  been  ransacking  the  libraries, 
digging  up  the  ruins  of  ancient  cities,  and  delving 
into  the  desert  sands  thinking  that  possibly  a  page 
might  be  found  that  would  throw  additional  light 
upon  this  Man.    Seven  years  ago  two  Englishmen, 


32  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

digging  in  the  sands  of  Middle  Egypt,  brought  up 
two  leaves  of  papyrus,  one  of  them  torn  in  two.  A 
thrill  of  delight  ran  through  the  world  of  Christian 
scholarship  at  the  thought  that  some  new  light 
might  be  thrown  on  Jesus'  life.  Alas!  the  new 
papyrus  has  nothing  new  to  tell.  The  whole  story 
must  be  sought  within  the  narrow  compass  of  the 
New  Testament.  But  we  can  bring  down  tlie 
limits  to  a  still  narrower  area.  You  can  write  the 
life  of  Jesus  from  the  Book  of  the  Acts,  but  it  is  a 
meagre  life  and  contains  practically  nothing  not  to 
be  found  in  the  Gospels.  You  may  also  piece  out  a 
life  of  Jesus  from  the  epistles  of  the  New  Testament, 
but  the  life  is  exceedingly  defective  and  nothing  of 
importance  is  added  to  the  things  already  told  in 
the  Gospels.  And  therefore,  so  far  as  our  present 
purpose  is  concerned,  we  may  throw  away  all  the 
other  books  of  the  New  Testament  and  affirm  that 
all  which  is  known  of  the  character  of  Jesus  must 
be  sought  for  inside  the  four  Gospels.  That  the  life 
of  the  greatest  and  most  important  man  who  ever 
lived  upon  the  earth  should  be  written  on  pages  so 
small  and  few  is  one  of  the  surprises. 

When  we  study  these  Gospels  we  are  surprised 
that  they  tell  us  so  little,  they  do  not  give  us  a  com- 
plete life  of  Jesus.  They  do  not  tell  us  how  long 
Jesus  lived,  but  from  scattered  hints  it  would  seem 
that  he  Hved  something  like  thirty-three  years. 
Thirty  of  these  years  are  passed  over  with  scarcely 
a  word.    They  are  deep  sunken  in  a  darkness  into 


SOURCES  33 

which  no  rays  of  light  enter.  The  men  who  wrote 
the  four  Gospels  did  not  attempt  to  deal  with  ten- 
elevenths  of  the  life  of  Jesus.  They  simply  let  the 
larger  part  alone.  Nor  did  they  attempt  to  deal 
even  with  all  the  three  years  of  his  public  ministry. 
They  mention  what  he  did  or  said  only  on  from  thirty 
to  thirty-five  days.  That  is,  they  confine  their  atten- 
tion to  one  thirtieth  of  his  public  life,  twenty-nine 
thirtieths  being  a  total  blank.  Or,  in  other  words,  if 
he  lived  thirty-three  years  and  the  evangelists  deal 
with  only  thirty-five  days,  they  limit  themselves  to 
one  three-hundredth  part  of  his  earthly  career, 
and  allow  two  hundred  and  ninety-nine  three-hun- 
dredths  to  lie  hidden.  These  men  have  recorded 
many  things  which  he  said,  but  his  recorded  sayings 
can  be  spoken  easily  within  five  hours.  They  tell 
many  things  which  he  did,  but  nearly  all  of  them 
might  have  been  crowded  into  a  day,  so  meagre 
is  their  report  of  what  Jesus  said  and  did.  It  is 
evident,  then,  that  we  do  not  have  as  much  informa- 
tion as  we  want.  The  question  is.  Do  we  have  as 
much  as  we  need?  There  is  always  a  wide  gap 
between  what  we  want  and  what  we  need,  and 
we  need  not  be  surprised  that  there  is  a  gap  here. 
These  Gospels  attempt  to  give  us  nothing  but  his 
words.  They  do  not  give  us  his  facial  expression, 
the  quiver  of  the  lip,  the  glance  of  the  eye.  We 
cannot  see  his  smile  or  his  frown.  Facial  expres- 
sion is  a  revelation,  and  that  revelation  is  lost  for- 
ever.   Nor  do  the  evangelists  attempt  to  give  us  his 


34  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

gestures.  Gestures  are  interpreters  of  thought.  A 
speaker  speaks  with  his  head,  his  shoulders,  his 
hands,  and  by  means  of  these  gestures  the  thought 
is  unfolded  and  made  clear.  Gesture  is  a  revela- 
tion, and  it  is  a  revelation  which  has  been  lost  for- 
ever. The  New  Testament  does  not  give  us  the 
voice  of  Jesus.  The  voice  is  the  best  of  all  inter- 
preters. By  its  modulations  and  cadences,  by  its 
inflexions  and  emphases,  it  reveals  and  explains  and 
illustrates.  The  music  of  speech  lies  in  the  in- 
flections, and  many  a  word  takes  on  a  new  glory 
from  the  way  in  which  it  is  spoken.  Intonation  is  a 
revelation,  but  in  the  case  of  Jesus  it  is  a  revelation 
which  has  been  lost  forever.  And  then  there  is  an- 
other revelation  to  which  we  are  denied  access :  the 
revelation  of  his  sighs  and  his  tears.  We  cannot 
see  the  tears  on  his  cheeks  as  he  looks  down  on 
Jerusalem  and  sobs,  "O!"  If  we  could  have 
heard  him  weeping  in  the  garden,  we  could  have 
seen  down  deeper  into  his  heart.  But  this  revela- 
tion is  denied  us  forever.  We  have  nothing  but 
words  to  deal  with,  and  words  are  sometimes  opaque 
and  ambiguous,  stumbling  interpreters  of  the  heart. 
But  words  are  all  that  God  has  given  us,  and  with 
words  therefore  we  must  be  content. 

Right  here  there  springs  up  a  new  surprise:  we 
are  not  to  deal  with  Jesus'  words.  He  spoke  in 
i  Aramaic,  and  there  are  not  a  dozen  Aramaic  words 
[left  in  the  Gospels.  He  said  to  the  little  girl,  "  Talitha 
cumi,"  which  being  interpreted   means,  **  Damsel, 


SOURCES  35 

arise!"  On  the  cross  he  said,  ''Eli,  Eli,  lama 
sabachthani  ? "  which  being  interpreted  means, 
"My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?" 
Besides  these  only  an  occasional  Aramaic  word  has 
been  recorded  for  us,  and  with  these  slight  excep- 
tions all  the  words  that  dropped  from  his  lips  have 
passed  completely  away.  We  read  the  English  New 
Testament.  Its  words  are  not  Jesus'  words,  they 
are  the  translators'  words,  the  words  chosen  by 
scholars  who  have  interpreted  for  us  the  Greek  text. 
But  even  the  Greek  words  were  not  spoken  by  Jesus, 
the  Greek  words  were  translators'  words  chosen  to 
interpret  the  meaning  of  the  Aramaic  words.  It  is 
not  unlikely  there  were  Aramaic  Gospels  before  the 
Greek  Gospels  were  written.  But  the  Aramaic  Gos- 
pels have  long  since  fallen  to  dust,  and  so  also  have 
the  Greek  Gospels.  The  first  Greek  copies  were 
written  on  papyrus,  and  the  papyrus  was  so  frail 
and  fragile  that  it  perished  probably  in  less  than 
a  hundred  years.  We  have  no  copies  of  the  New 
Testament  that  run  back  beyond  the  fourth  cen- 
tury —  and  this  also  is  a  surprise. 

Looking,  then,  at  these  words  with  which  we  have 
to  deal,  will  they  tell  us  anything  of  the  personal 
appearance  of  the  Nazarene?  Nothing.  The  men 
who  wrote  the  Gospels  were  not  interested  in  the 
stature  of  Jesus,  in  the  color  of  his  eyes  or  hair,  in 
the  expression  of  his  face,  or  the  build  of  his  body. 
The  New  Testament  has  been  often  scrutinized 
by  men  eager  to  get  some  hint  of  Jesus'  personal 


36  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

appearance,  but  no  such  hint  has  been  forthcoming. 
Expressions  here  and  there  have  been  seized  upon 
and  put  upon  the  rack  and  tortured,  in  order  to 
compel  them  to  give  at  least  a  suggestion  as  to  what 
Jesus  looked  like.  But  under  torture  every  sen- 
tence of  the  Gospels  remains  absolutely  silent  on  this 
most  interesting  question.  We  must  therefore  at 
the  very  beginning  banish  all  pictures  of  Jesus  from 
our  minds.  We  do  not  know  what  he  looked  like. 
The  artists  have  not  known,  they  have  simply  painted 
from  their  own  imagination.  When  an  Italian  paints 
the  face  of  Jesus  he  puts  a  little  of  the  Italian  into  it, 
when  a  German  paints  him  he  paints  a  little  of  the 
German  into  it,  when  a  Spaniard  paints  him  he 
paints  a  little  of  the  Spaniard  into  it.  That  ac- 
counts also  for  the  variety  of  the  Madonnas. 
Raphael  paints  her  as  a  lovely  Italian  girl,  Murillo 
paints  her  as  an  innocent  Spanish  maiden,  Sichel 
paints  her  as  a  German  peasant  girl.  No  artist  can 
overcome  completely  the  predilections  of  his  own 
nationality.  The  artists  then  have  simply  painted 
their  ideal,  and  their  ideal  is  the  creation  of  their  own 
heart,  and  that  is  what  you  and  I  have  a  right  to  do. 
Would  you  conceive  of  Jesus  as  he  appeared  in  the 
days  of  his  flesh,  you  must  form  him  according  to 
your  own  ideal.  You  have  the  same  right  the  artists 
have.  This,  then,  is  to  be  remembered,  that  we  are 
not  to  study  the  personal  appearance  of  Jesus,  but 
the  stamp  of  his  mind  and  the  bent  of  his  spirit. 
In  other  words,  we  are  to  study  his  character. 


SOURCES  37 

But  while  the  smiles  and  frowns,  the  intonations 
and  modulations,  the  glance  of  the  eye  and  the  ges- 
ture of  the  hand,  have  all  been  lost  and  lost  forever, 
we  must  not  think  that  they  were  unimportant  in 
the  history  of  the  world.  All  those  things  helped  to 
make  an  impression  on  the  men  that  stood  nearest 
to  Jesus.  They  saw  his  smile,  caught  the  expression 
of  his  eye,  heard  him  laugh,  sigh,  sob,  drank  in  the 
music  of  his  voice  —  and  the  question  is,  How  were 
they  affected?  The  New  Testament  tells  us  they 
were  affected  in  two  distinct  and  opposite  ways. 
Some  men  were  repelled.  They  disliked  him, 
feared,  hated,  detested,  loathed  him.  Their  loath- 
ing became  so  venomous  that  they  murdered  him. 
They  could  not  allow  him  to  remain  upon  this  earth. 
That  is  the  effect  which  he  produced  upon  one  type 
of  mind.  There  were  other  men  who  were  attracted 
by  him,  they  liked  him,  loved,  adored,  worshipped 
him,  they  were  ready  to  die  for  him.  It  should  never 
be  forgotten  that  every  one  of  his  disciples,  with  one! 
exception,  laid  down  his  life  for  Jesus,  and  that,  too,| 
after  Jesus  was  dead.  The  men  who  were  the  nearest 
to  him  loved  him  with  an  adoration  which  was  bound- 
less, and  they  communicated  the  impression  to  other 
men,  and  the  impression  has  come  down  to  this 
present  hour,  so  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  thousands  of  miles  from  Palestine  men 
are  building  churches  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  believ- 
ing that  his  name  is  above  every  name,  and  that 
every  knee  should  bow  to  him. 


38  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

At  the  very  beginning  then  of  our  study  of  the 
character  of  Jesus  let  us  remember  that  Christianity 
is  rooted  in  a  Hfe  that  was  Hved  upon  the  earth. 
There  is  one  part  of  the  Christian  creed  which  every 
human  being  can  repeat  without  question  and  with- 
out reservation.  There  are  men  who  might  refuse 
to  repeat  the  first  article,  **I  beUeve  in  God  the 
Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth." 
God  is  spirit,  and  a  man  might  refuse  to  acknowl- 
edge that  He  exists.  There  are  those  who  might 
stumble  at  the  last  clause  in  the  creed,  "I  believe 
in  the  life  everlasting."  That  also  reaches  out  be- 
yond the  sweep  of  human  sight,  and  there  are  men 
who  will  not  affirm  beyond  that  which  they  can  see. 
But  at  the  very  centre  of  the  creed  there  is  one  lit- 
tle paragraph  to  which  no  one  can  offer  reasonable 
objection,  "Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was 
crucified,  dead,  and  buried."  There  are  some  who 
object  to  the  supernatural,  they  do  not  like  the 
extraordinary.  Very  well,  let  them  begin  with  the 
ordinary,  let  them  take  their  stand  on  the  natural. 
Some  of  you  may  think  that  Christianity  is  in  the  air. 
Its  branches,  to  be  sure,  are  in  the  air,  but  its  roots 
are  in  the  earth.  Its  base  is  not  in  philosophy  but 
in  human  history,  not  in  poetry  but  in  mundane 
experience.  All  that  you  see  of  Christianity  in  the 
world  to-day  came  out  of  this  man  who  lived  in 
Palestine,  who  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was 
crucified,  dead,  and  buried. 

May  I  make  of  you  this  one  request, —  that  while 


SOURCES  39 

you  follow  my  words  you  read  St.  Mark's  Gospel 
from  beginning  to  end.  It  is  probably  the  oldest 
of  all  the  Gospels,  the  shortest  of  them  all,  the 
most  graphic  of  them  all,  and  seems  to  come  the 
nearest  to  Jesus  as  men  saw  him  in  the  days  of  his 
humiliation.  If  you  will  read  this  Gospel,  you  will 
more  easily  follow  me  in  these  studies,  and  come  to 
know  better  the  one  supreme  character  of  history. 
It  is  a  sad  mistake  for  any  man  or  any  woman  to 
leave  religious  matters  entirely  to  the  minister.  The 
Roman  Catholic  who  leaves  everything  to  the  priest 
does  not  grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  The  Protestant  who  simply 
comes  to  church  and  listens  to  the  preacher  speak, 
and  who  makes  no  earnest  effort  to  study  for  him- 
self the  great  literature  in  which  are  enshrined  the 
oracles  of  God  —  that  Protestant  fritters  away  his 
opportunities  and  does  not  build  up  within  himself 
those  deep  convictions  and  that  enduring  knowledge 
which  will  make  him  a  power  and  blessing  in  his 
day  and  generation.  In  other  words,  I  cannot  study 
the  character  of  Jesus  for  you,  you  must  study  it  for 
yourselves.  All  that  I  can  hope  to  do  is  to  drop 
suggestions  which  may  possibly  assist  you  in  your 
study. 


IV 

THE  STRENGTH   OF   JESUS 


THE   STRENGTH   OF  JESUS 

"And  they  were  all  amazed." 

—  Mark  i :  27. 

We  have  seen  that  all  the  authentic  materials  for 
a  Life  of  Christ  are  to  be  found  in  the  four  Gospels. 
When  we  study  this  material  it  turns  out  to  be 
fragmentary  and  scanty.  The  writers  deal  with 
only  three  years  out  of  thirty-three,  and  tell  us  of 
less  than  forty  days  out  of  three  years,  and  of  these 
selected  days  they  deal  only  with  shreds  and  frac- 
tions. Possibly  somebody  may  say  we  cannot  write 
a  life  of  Jesus  at  all,  and  that  is  true,  if  by  life  of 
Jesus  you  mean  a  complete  biography.  But  what 
if  it  should  happen  that  the  men  who  wrote  the 
Gospels  were  not  trying  to  write  a  biography  of 
Jesus,  but  had  something  entirely  different  in  mind. 
When  Morley  wrote  the  "Life  of  Gladstone"  he 
filled  three  ponderous  volumes.  When  Carlyle 
wrote  the  "Life  of  Frederick  the  Great"  he  wrote 
over  six  thousand  pages,  filling  twenty-one  books. 
When  Nicolay  and  Hay  wrote  the  "Life  of  Lincoln" 
they  filled  ten  good-sized  volumes.  These  Gospel 
writers  evidently  did  not  intend  to  write  a  biography 
of  Jesus,  otherwise  they  would  not  have  confined 

43 


44  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

themselves  within  such  narrow  limits.  We  are 
driven  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  writing  not 
the  biography  of  Jesus  but  the  character  of  Jesus. 
A  vast  amount  of  material  is  necessary  for  a  biog- 
raphy, but  only  a  little  material  is  needed  for  the 
elucidation  of  a  character.  You  do  not  need  all 
the  words  a  man  speaks,  just  a  few  of  them  will 
answer  —  every  word  is  a  flash  of  lightning,  and 
like  a  flash  of  lightning  lights  up  the  world  from 
horizon  to  horizon.  You  do  not  need  many  deeds, 
every  deed  is  like  a  sunbeam  touching  a  dark  world 
into  visibility.  Notwithstanding  the  Gospels  are  so 
small,  we  know  Jesus,  his  mind  and  heart  and 
spirit,  better  than  we  know  any  other  man  who  has 
ever  lived  upon  the  earth.  Men  who  study  the  New 
Testament  carefully  feel  that  they  know  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  better  than  any  other  character  of  history. 
Some  one  may  say,  *'Ah,  Jesus  lived  two  thou- 
sand years  ago,  and  therefore  we  cannot  be  sure 
what  his  character  really  was."  You  are  mistaken. 
You  can  understand  a  great  man  better  at  a  dis- 
tance than  when  standing  near  him.  No  truly 
great  man  is  ever  appreciated  at  his  worth  by  the 
people  in  the  midst  of  whom  he  lives.  The  world 
did  not  appreciate  Abraham  Lincoln  until  he  died. 
His  great  figure  has  been  looming  higher  each  suc- 
ceeding decade,  and  the  generations  yet  to  come 
will  understand  him  better  than  we  do.  We  under- 
stand Luther  far  better  than  his  contemporaries. 
We  understand  the  apostles  better  than  the  fathers 


HIS  STRENGTH  45 

did.  We  understand  Jesus  of  Nazareth  better  than 
has  any  other  generation  of  men  that  has  ever  lived. 
A  great  man  is  like  a  mountain,  you  cannot  appre-  j 
ciate  it  when  standing  at  its  base.  You  must  throw  1 
miles  between  your  eye  and  it  before  you  can  catch 
the  symmetry  of  its  sides  and  feel  the  majesty  of 
its  colossal  dimensions.  Just  so  it  is  with  Jesus. 
Each  succeeding  generation  will  understand  him 
better.  He  was  so  great  that  the  men  of  Palestine 
could  not  take  his  measure.  We  are  far  better  able 
to  judge  how  great  he  was  because  we  can  see  the 
length  of  the  luminous  shadow  which  he  has  cast 
across  nineteen  centuries  and  we  can  measure  the 
volume  of  the  stream  which  has  flowed  from  the 
fountains  of  his  heart.  When  you  wish  that  youj 
had  lived  in  Jesus'  day,  you  are  wishing  for  a  great 
misfortune.  Had  you  lived  in  the  first  century  you 
would  most  likely  have  been  found  among  those 
who  saw  in  Jesus  nothing  but  a  disturber  of  the 
peace.  It  may  be  that  you  would  have  joined  the 
crowd  that  cried,  "Crucify  him!" 

Let  us  look  at  Jesus  across  the  distance  of  nine- 
teen hundred  years.  When  you  picture  him,  what 
sort  of  face  is  it  that  stands  out  before  you?  That 
will  depend  upon  the  painting  with  which  you  are 
most  familiar,  or  it  will  depend  upon  instruction 
which  you  have  received  from  teachers,  or  it  will 
depend  upon  the  working  of  your  own  fancy  or 
imagination.  We  instinctively  begin  to  form  the 
image  of  a  person  whom  we  have  never  seen,  at  the 


46  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

mere  mention  of  his  name.  You  have  all  tried  it 
again  and  again.  The  fame  of  some  great  man  has 
reached  your  ears,  and  your  mind  has  gone  to  work 
at  once  and  conceived  what  sort  of  man  he  is. 
Later  on,  it  may  be  your  eyes  have  looked  upon 
him  and  you  have  said,  "I  was  altogether  mis- 
taken in  the  image  I  had  formed."  It  may  be, 
therefore,  that  you  have  been  misled  by  the  painters, 
deceived  by  your  teachers,  led  astray  by  your  own 
imagination.  It  will  be  better  to  do  away  with  all 
such  images  and  try  to  see  Jesus  as  men  saw  him 
who  touched  him  in  Judea  and  Galilee.  Those  were 
the  men  who  heard  his  voice,  saw  the  light  in  his 
eye,  caught  the  expression  of  his  face — they  are  the 
best  witnesses  therefore  of  what  sort  of  a  man  he 
really  was,  and  therefore  we  shall  not  listen  to  any- 
thing which  Jesus  himself  said,  we  shall  pay  atten- 
tion simply  to  the  impression  which  he  made  upon 
the  people.  He  was  not  a  hermit  or  recluse, 
he  pressed  his  life  close  to  the  lives  of  men,  and 
therefore  we  have  abundant  material  with  which 
to  deal  in  trying  to  find  out  what  impression  he 
made  upon  the  people  of  his  time. 

What  was  the  first  impression  which  Jesus  made 
upon  his  contemporaries?  What  has  been  his  first 
impression  on  you?  Has  he  impressed  you  as  sub- 
dued and  meek,  calm  and  effeminate?  Have  you 
seen  him  always  as  many  a  painter  has  painted  him, 
pale  and  ghastly,  sickly,  emaciated?  When  you 
think  of  him  do  you  think  of  some  one  thin  and 


HIS  STRENGTH  47 

gaunt,  weak  and  pallid?  Not  so  did  he  seem  to 
the  people  of  his  day.  Open  the  Gospel  according 
to  St.  Mark.  In  the  very  first  chapter  he  tells  you 
in  four  different  places  what  impression  Jesus  made 
upon  men.  He  first  tells  you  of  the  impression  he 
made  on  John  the  Baptist.  John  the  Baptist  was  a 
mighty  man,  none  mightier  had  ever  appeared  in 
Judea;  but  John  said  there  is  coming  one  mightier 
than  I.  When  Jesus  presents  himself  to  be  baptized, 
a  remarkable  thing  happens.  John  had  called  men 
to  repentance,  he  had  faced  the  greatest  men  of  his 
day  without  flinching,  he  had  baptized  the  great 
and  small,  the  high  and  low,  the  rich  and  poor,  the 
learned  and  ignorant;  but  when  this  man  from 
Nazareth  appears,  John  falters  and  draws  back 
and  says:  "I  cannot  baptize  you.  I  have  need  to 
be  baptized  by  you."  Such  was  the  impression 
which  Jesus  made  upon  the  intrepid  reformer  from 
the  desert. 

Let  us  take  another  illustration :  He  walks  one 
day  along  the  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee  and 
sees  two  men  fishing;  he  says,  "Follow  me,"  and 
straightway  they  left  their  nets  and  followed  him. 
A  few  steps  farther  on  he  sees  two  other  men,  he 
says  to  them,  "Follow  me,"  and  they  left  all  and 
followed  him.  Such  was  the  impression  he  made 
upon  them.  He  goes  into  the  synagogue  and  begins 
to  teach,  and  they  are  amazed,  not  at  what  he  says, 
but  the  manner  in  which  he  says  it.  He  teaches 
them  as  one  having  authority  and  not  as  the  scribes. 


48  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

There  is  something  in  his  voice  that  pierces  and 
cuts  and  thrills,  a  tone  that  they  have  never  heard 
before.  It  is  the  note  of  authority,  the  note  of 
strength.  Or  take  another  illustration:  There  is  a 
sick  man  in  the  synagogue,  and  Jesus  heals  him, 
and  again  the  people  are  surprised  because  God 
has  given  such  power  to  a  man.  In  these  four 
instances  the  first  impression  of  Jesus  is  the  im- 
pression of  authority,  mastery,  power,  leadership; 
he  is  a  man  of  strength.  And  that,  I  think,  is  the 
teaching  of  all  the  Gospels :  they  give  us  repeated 
illustrations  of  the  power  of  Jesus.  He  drew  men 
to  him.  Wherever  he  went  he  was  surrounded  by 
a  crowd.  He  goes  down  to  the  seashore,  and  the 
crowd  is  so  great  they  push  him  into  the  water  and 
he  gets  into  a  boat.  He  goes  to  the  hilltop,  and 
immediately  the  hillside  is  alive  with  people.  He 
goes  to  the  desert,  and  immediately  a  great  crowd 
surrounds  him.  Sometimes  he  dares  not  go  into 
the  city  because  of  the  tumult  which  his  entrance 
will  certainly  stir  up.  Every  city  through  which 
he  passes  is  turned  upside  down  by  his  presence. 
Only  a  man  of  strength  draws  to  him  great  masses 
of  men.  It  is  noteworthy  that  widely  differing 
classes  of  men  are  drawn :  the  publicans  and  sinners, 
the  great  unwashed  crowd,  they  are  drawn,  but 
Nicodemus,  a  member  of  the  supreme  court  of 
Palestine,  he  also  is  attracted,  and  the  Roman  cen- 
turion, he  also  is  drawn,  saying  to  Jesus;  "I  know 
what  it  is  to  command  and  so  do  you.    There  is  an 


HIS  STRENGTH 


49 


enemy  in  my  house  which  I  cannot  order  out,  you 
speak  the  word  and  he  will  depart."  Not  only  did 
Jesus  draw  men  to  him  but  he  stirred  them  when- 
ever they  came  near  him.  Have  you  ever  noted 
how  many  times  the  evangelists  say  in  speaking  of 
the  people:  "they  were  astonished"  —  "they  were 
astonished  with  a  great  astonishment"  —  "they 
were  amazed"  —  "they  were  filled  with  amaze- 
ment "  —  "  they  marvelled ' '  ?  The  evangelists  never 
say  such  things  of  themselves.  Matthew  never  says, 
"I  was  surprised."  Mark  never  says,  "I  was 
amazed."  John  never  says,  "I  marvelled."  They 
write  all  of  them  with  an  arm  of  marble ;  there  is  no 
feeling  in  the  fingers  that  hold  the  pen ;  they  simply 
write  in  cold  blood  the  effect  which  Jesus  had  on 
others. 

Probably  no  better  illustration  of  the  power  of 
Jesus  can  be  found  than  that  which  is  afiforded  in 
the  estimate  which  different  classes  of  people  put 
upon  him.  One  day  when  Jesus  propounded  the 
question,  "  Who  do  men  say  that  I  am  ?  "  the  disciples 
told  him  that  men  had  different  opinions  in  regard 
to  him.  Some  said  he  was  John  the  Baptist,  some 
said  he  was  Elijah,  others  said  he  was  Jeremiah, 
while  others  unable  to  give  his  exact  name  felt  con- 
vinced he  was  one  of  the  old  prophets.  This  is 
remarkable!  They  went  to  the  grave  in  order  to 
find  a  man  to  whom  they  could  liken  him.  There 
was  no  man  then  living  with  whom  he  could  be 
compared.    We  do  the  same  thing.    When  we  want 


50  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

to  stir  men's  hearts,  we  appeal  to  the  dead ;  when  we 
search  for  the  great,  we  descend  into  the  grave,  we 
talk  of  Shakespeare  and  Caesar,  of  Charlemagne 
and  Alfred  the  Great,  of  Lincoln  and  Webster,  we 
dare  not  use  the  name  of  a  man  living.  That  is 
what  the  Jews  did.  The  name  of  no  man  living 
was  great  enough  to  convey  their  idea  of  the  strength 
which  they  felt  resided  in  Jesus.  He  was  one  of 
the  giants  of  bygone  ages  who  had  come  back  to 
the  earth  carrying  with  him  powers  augmented  by 
his  sojourn  in  the  realms  of  death.  This  tells  us 
clearly  that  to  them  he  was  a  man  of  tremendous 
power. 

And  if  the  Jews  felt  this  in  regard  to  him, 
what  was  the  impression  which  he  made  upon  the 
Roman  officials?  He  impressed  them  in  the  same 
way.  When  the  policemen  came  to  arrest  him  and 
asked  him  if  he  was  indeed  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  he 
turned  upon  them  and  simply  said,  *'I  am,"  and 
they  fell  backward  to  the  ground.  What  do  you 
suppose  his  eyes  looked  like  that  night  when  they 
outflashed  the  Roman  torches  and  outshone  the 
Syrian  stars?  Pilate  is  afraid  of  him.  He  is  the 
representative  of  Caesar  in  Palestine.  He  is  clothed 
with  authority.  Jesus  is  nothing  but  a  poor  un- 
armed peasant.  Nevertheless  Pilate  is  afraid  of 
him,  he  draws  back  from  him,  he  wrings  his  hands 
in  uncertainty,  he  washes  his  hands,  he  tries  to  get 
rid  of  this  man.  He  feels  that  there  is  a  power  in 
him  unlike  any  power  he  has  ever  come  in  contact 


HIS  STRENGTH  51 

with  before.  But  if  you  would  have  the  finest 
proof  of  his  power,  you  can  find  it  in  the  intensity 
of  the  hatred  and  in  the  intensity  of  the  love  which 
he  excited.  How  many  hated  him !  They  could 
not  hear  him  talk  without  sizzling,  hissing  and  boil- 
ing like  a  pot  under  which  the  fire  roars.  He  stirred 
tempests  in  the  heart,  he  awoke  serpents  in  men. 
He  drove  them  to  madness  until  they  cried  out  in 
frenzy,  "Crucify  him !"  Only  a  great  man  can  do 
that.  You  cannot  hate  a  pj'-gmy,  a  weakling,  a 
ninny.  You  can  hate  Nero  or  Napoleon  or  any 
giant,  but  you  cannot  hate  a  nobody.  Who  was  the 
most  detested  man  in  England  during  the  last  cen- 
tury ?  William  E.  Gladstone.  We  in  America  have 
little  conception  of  the  venomous  hatred  that  was 
poured  out  upon  that  man.  He  stirred  men  to 
hatred  because  he  was  so  mighty.  Who  are  the  men 
most  detested  in  America  to-day?  Every  one  of 
them  a  man  of  tremendous  power.  The  men  that 
are  loathed  and  feared  are  men  of  genius,  who  have 
in  them  extraordinary  capacity  for  bringing  things 
to  pass. 

But  if  Jesus  drove  some  men  to  hate  him, 
he  drove  other  men  to  love  him.  He  kindled  a 
devotion  that  is  superior  to  anything  that  has  ever 
been  known  in  this  world.  He  kindled  a  fire  which 
ran  all  over  Palestine,  and  then  around  the  edges 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  then  into  the  German 
forests,  it  then  leaped  over  the  English  Channel,  and 
later  on  it  leaped  over  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  now 


52  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

it  has  leaped  over  all  the  oceans  and  is  burning  more 
brightly  to-day  than  ever.  And  all  this  conflagration 
was  kindled  by  his  hot  heart.  These  torches  which 
are  burning  now  have  been  carried  down  through 
the  blasts  of  nineteen  stormful  centuries,  and  they 
have  never  gone  out,  because  he  lighted  them.  He 
called  forth  a  kind  of  reverence  that  has  never 
been  granted  to  any  other  man  who  has  ever  lived. 
He  was  so  mighty  that  when  men  thought  of  him, 
they  thought  of  God.  The  man  who  stood  the 
nearest  to  him  saw  him  in  a  vision  after  he  was 
gone,  and  he  says,  "When  I  saw  him  I  fell  at  his 
feet  as  one  dead." 


THE  SINCERITY   OF   JESUS 


THE  SINCERITY  OF  JESUS 

"Ye  shall  not  be  as  the  hypocrites." 

—  Matthew  vi  :  5. 

All  the  graces  are  beautiful,  but  some  have  a 
finer  loveliness  than  do  others.  All  virtues  are  im- 
portant, but  some  are  more  essential  than  others. 
There  are  virtues  whose  absence  leaves  the  charac- 
ter ragged  and  marred,  and  there  are  others  whose 
absence  leaves  the  soul  a  hollow  shell.  Certain 
virtues  are  conspicuously  ornamental,  whereas  others 
are  plainly  fundamental.  If  the  former  are  not  de- 
veloped, the  edifice  is  not  complete ;  but  if  the  latter 
are  not  present,  the  whole  structure  comes  tumbling 
down  in  ruin.  Such  a  fundamental  virtue  is  the 
virtue  of  sincerity.  It  is  the  keystone  in  the  arch 
without  which  the  arch  collapses.  Or  to  change 
the  figure  it  is  the  mother  of  a  noble  family  of  vir- 
tues, all  of  which  draw  their  strength  and  beauty 
from  it.  Truthfulness,  honesty,  plainness,  frank- 
ness, simplicity,  these  and  many  others  are  only 
children  of  the  Queen  —  Sincerity. 

It  is  the  virtue  which  the  human  heart  instinc- 
tively craves  and  looks  for.    It  is  a  trait  which  a 

55 


56  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

parent's  eyes  seek  for  in  his  children.  Anything 
like  deceit  or  trickery  or  sham  in  a  child  causes 
the  parental  heart  to  bleed.  "Do  you  mean  what 
you  are  saying?"  "Are  you  telling  me  what  you 
really  feel?"  "Are  you  concealing  from  me  things 
which  I  ought  to  know?"  There  is  nothing  which 
a  parent  desires  so  much  in  his  children  as  the 
unaffected  simplicity  of  a  sincere  heart.  This  is 
what  we  demand  in  all  the  higher  relationships  of 
life.  In  the  lower  relationships  sincerity  is  desir- 
able, but  in  the  higher  ones  it  is  absolutely  indis- 
pensable. A  man  may  sweep  the  pavement  or  make 
our  garden,  and  do  both  well  even  though  he  is  at 
heart  a  cheat.  But  we  like  him  better  and  we  feel 
more  comfortable  in  his  presence  if  he  looks  up  at 
us  out  of  honest  eyes.  A  servant  may  hold  his 
place  and  be  insincere,  not  so  a  friend.  There  is 
an  adjective  which  the  word  "friend"  will  not  keep 
company  with,  and  that  is  the  adjective  "  insincere." 
You  cannot  induce  them  to  stay  together  in  the  same 
room.  They  flatly  contradict  each  other.  The  mo- 
ment we  find  out  that  a  comrade  is  insincere  with 
us,  he  ceases  to  be  our  friend.  Sincerity  is  the  very 
blood  and  breath  of  friendship.  "  Pure  gold  he  is," 
we  say  with  exultation,  meaning  that  in  our  friend 
there  is  no  alloy.  His  nature  is  unspoiled  and 
unadulterated.  We  can  rely  upon  him  through  the 
twenty-four  hours  of  every  day.  We  are  so  con- 
structed that  we  look  for  sincerity  in  others,  and  when 
we  do  not  find  it  we  are  grieved  and  disappointed. 


HIS  SINCERITY  57 

When  what  we  have  taken  for  sincerity  turns  out 
to  be  nothing  but  an  imitation,  our  heart  sinks 
within  us  and  we  feel  like  a  man  who  has  been 
stabbed.  There  is  nothing  which  so  takes  the  life 
out  of  us  as  the  discovery  that  some  one  whom  we 
have  trusted  has  been  other  than  what  he  seemed 
to  be.  The  very  suspicion  that  some  one  whose  life 
is  close  to  us  is  insincere  renders  us  restless  and 
makes  the  universe  seem  insecure. 

And  yet  how  common  insincerity  is.  What  a 
miserable  old  humbug  of  a  world  we  are  living  in, 
full  of  trickery  and  dishonesty  and  deceit  of  every 
kind.  Society  is  cursed  with  affectation,  business 
is  honeycombed  with  dishonesty,  the  political  world 
abounds  in  duplicity  and  chicanery,  there  is  sham 
and  pretence  and  humbuggery  everywhere.  Some 
use  big  words  they  do  not  understand,  and  some  lay 
claim  to  knowledge  which  they  do  not  have,  and 
some  parade  in  dresses  which  they  cannot  pay  for ; 
the  life  of  many  a  man  and  many  a  woman  is  one 
colossal  lie.  We  say  things  which  we  do  not  mean, 
express  emotions  which  we  do  not  feel,  we  praise 
when  we  secretly  condemn,  we  smile  when  there  is 
a  frown  on  the  face  of  the  heart,  we  give  compli- 
ments when  we  are  really  thinking  curses,  striving 
a  hundred  times  a  week  to  make  people  think  we 
are  other  than  we  are.  It  is  a  penitentiary  offence 
to  obtain  money  under  false  pretences,  and  so  from 
this  we  carefully  refrain.  But  how  many  other 
things  are  obtained,  do  you  think,  by  shamming 


58  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

and  pretending,  for  which  there  is  no  penalty  but 
the  condemnation  of  Almighty  God?  Yes,  it  is  a 
sad,  deceitful,  demoralized  world  in  the  midst  of 
which  we  find  ourselves ;  but  thank  God  there  are 
hearts  here  and  there  upon  which  we  can  evermore 
depend.  We  have  tested  them  and  we  know  them 
to  be  true.  Life  would  not  be  worth  the  living  if 
there  were  no  one  on  earth  sincere.  It  is  to  the 
honest  heart  that  we  return  again  and  again,  seek- 
ing rest  and  finding  it.  It  is  a  fountain  at  which 
we  drink  and  refresh  ourselves  for  the  toilsome 
journey.  Beautiful,  indeed,  is  the  virtue  of  sincerity. 
It  is  not  a  gaudy  virtue.  It  does  not  glitter.  It 
has  no  sparkle  in  it.  But  it  is  substantial.  It  is 
life  giving.  It  sustains  and  nourishes  the  heart. 
It  is  a  virtue  within  the  reach  of  the  humblest  of 
us.  There  are  some  things  we  cannot  be,  and 
many  things  which  we  cannot  do.  But  this  one 
thing  is  within  the  reach  of  us  all,  —  we  may 
pmy  God  unceasingly  to  keep  our  heart  sincere. 
^Would  you  see  sincerity  in  its  loveliest  form,  then 
^ome  to  Jesus.  Here  is  a  man  incapable  of  a  lie. 
Nothing  was  so  abhorrent  to  him  as  falsehood.  No 
other  people  so  stirred  his  wrath  as  men  who  pre- 
tended to  be  what  they  were  not.  The  most  odious 
word  upon  his  lips  was  the  word  "  hypocrite."  Have 
you  ever  wondered  why  it  is  impossible  to  speak 
that  word  without  it  falling  from  the  lips  like  a 
serpent  —  it  is  because  his  curse  is  resting  on  it. 
It  was  not  a  harsh  word  before  he  spoke  it,  but  he 


HIS  SINCERITY  59 

breathed  the  hot  breath  of  his  scorn  into  it,  and  it 
has  been  ever  since  a  word  degraded  and  lost.  A 
hypocrite  is  an  actor.  It  is  a  word  taken  originally 
from  the  stage.  In  the  theatre  we  expect  men  and 
women  to  be  other  than  they  seem  to  be.  An 
ordinary  plebeian  wraps  round  him  the  robes  of  a 
king,  talks  like  a  king,  and  acts  like  one,  and  we 
are  not  offended,  because  we  are  not  deceived.  It 
is  expected  that  on  the  stage  no  one  shall  seem  to 
be  what  he  really  is.  But  on  the  great  stage  of  the 
world  God  expects  every  man  to  be  what  he  claims 
to  be.  If  we  say  things  we  do  not  believe,  and  profess 
things  we  do  not  feel,  and  lay  claim  to  things  which 
we  do  not  possess,  we  are  tricksters  and  deceivers, 
causing  mischief  and  confusion  in  the  world.  It  was 
the  sincerity  of  Jesus  which  drove  him  into  deadly 
conflict  with  the  hypocrites.  A  hypocrite  and  Jesus 
cannot  live  together. 

It  was  his  constant  exhortation  that  men  should 
speak  the  truth.  The  religious  leaders  of  his  day  had 
divided  oaths  into  two  classes,  —  one  class  binding, 
the  other  not.     If  an  oath  contained  the  name  of  ^ 

God,  it  was  binding  on  the  conscience ;  if  for  God's 
name  some  other  name  was  substituted,  then  the 
conscience  might  go  free.  Jesus  was  disgusted  by  » 
the  reasoning  of  the  bat-eyed  pettifoggers.  "Do 
not  swear  at  all,"  he  said.  "Let  your  communica- 
tion be  yea,  yea,  nay,  nay."  In  other  words,  "If 
you  want  to  render  a  thing  emphatic,  simply  say  it 
over  again.     If  men  doubt  you,  then  quietly  repeat 


60  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

what  you  have  already  declared."  It  was  the 
belief  of  Jesus  that  a  man's  word  ought  to  be  as 
good  as  his  oath,  or  as  we  say  as  good  as  his  bond. 
If  the  world  were  the  kind  of  world  God  wants  it 
to  be,  then  all  the  evidence  that  would  be  needed  to 
prove  a  certain  thing  true  would  be  that  a  man  had 
asserted  it.  If  it  is  necessary  now  in  courts  of  jus- 
tice to  make  use  of  oaths,  that  is  because  of  the  Evil 
One  who  has  corrupted  many  hearts  and  rendered 
the  ordinary  speech  of  humanity  unreliable.  In  an 
ideal  world  all  oaths  are  unnecessary  and  unthought 
of. 

It  was  because  of  Jesus*  incorruptible  sincerity 
that  we  have  from  his  lips  such  a  remarkable  out- 
pouring of  plain  words.  You  and  I  do  not  like 
plain  words.  We  dare  not  use  them  —  at  least 
often.  We  water  our  words  down.  We  pull  the 
string  out  of  them.  We  substitute  long  Latin  words 
for  plain,  short,  Anglo-Saxon  words,  for  by  multiply- 
ing the  syllables  we  attenuate  the  meaning.  For 
instance,  we  say  *' prevarication'  instead  of  "lie," 
because  falsehood  when  expressed  pompously  loses 
its  blackness  and  grossness.  But  Jesus  would  not 
use  words  of  velvet  when  words  of  velvet  flattered 
and  deceived.  It  was  his  work  to  help  men  see 
themselves  as  they  were.  He  characterized  them 
by  words  which  accurately  described  their  character. 
One  day  he  told  a  crowd  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem 
that  they  were  of  their  father  the  devil,  and  that  the 
lusts  of  their  father  they  were  eager  to  do.    He 


HIS  SINCERITY  6l 

went  on  to  add  that  the  devil  was  a  murderer  and 
that  he  abode  not  in  the  truth  because  the  truth 
was  not  in  him.  We  are  shocked  by  such  plainness 
of  speech.  We  do  not  like  it.  Is  that  because  we 
dare  not  express  things  as  they  are?  Have  we 
gotten  into  the  habit  of  hiding  our  eyes  and  trying 
to  make  black  things  seem  gray  or  even  white? 

Jesus  was  incorrigibly  sincere,  and  it  was  sin- 
cerity which  drove  him  to  tell  men  the  plain  truth. 
He  said  to  these  men,  "If  I  should  say  I  do  not 
know  God,  I  should  be  a  liar  like  you.'*  There  was 
a  strong  inducement  for  him  to  conceal  his  extraordi- 
nary knowledge.  A  man  makes  himself  odious  by 
claiming  to  know  more  than  other  men,  and  by 
asserting  that  he  can  do  more  than  anybody  else. 
It  would  have  been  easier  for  Jesus  to  adopt  the 
language  of  the  professionally  humble  people  who 
are  always  saying  that  they  do  not  know  anything 
and  cannot  do  anything  and  do  not  amount  to  any- 
thing. But  Jesus  was  a  man  of  truth.  He  could 
not  disguise  the  fact  that  his  knowledge  was  unique 
and  that  his  power  was  unparalleled.  Because  he 
was  true  he  could  not  hold  back  the  fact  that  he 
was  the  Good  Shepherd  and  the  Door,  the  Bread 
of  Life,  and  the  Light  of  the  World.  Nothing  but 
sincerity  would  ever  have  driven  him  to  outrage  the 
feelings  of  his  countrymen  by  assertions  so  ex- 
traordinary. Had  he  kept  silence  or  pretended  to 
be  ignorant  on  matters  on  which  he  possessed  full 
knowledge,  he  would  indeed  have  been  a  liar  like 


62  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  very  men  with  whom  he  was  struggling.  All 
these  remarkable  declarations  of  his  in  regard  to 
the  nature  of  his  personality  and  the  range  of  his 
power  were  forced  from  his  lips  by  a  heart  un- 
swervingly loyal  to  the  truth. 

The  warnings  of  Jesus  have  often  aroused  criti- 
cism and  condemnation  because  of  their  severity 
and  the  frightening  words  in  which  they  are  ex- 
pressed. He  told  certain  men  they  were  moving 
onward  to  perdition  and  painted  their  loss  and  ruin 
in  phrases  which  have  caused  the  human  heart  to 
shudder.  How  will  you  account  for  such  vigor  of 
language?  It  was  certainly  cruel  to  speak  such 
words  if  he  did  not  know  the  possibilities  and  doom 
of  sin.  If  he  knew,  then  he  was  bound  to  tell. 
The  awful  parables  of  the  New  Testament  are  the 
product  of  a  heart  that  was  uncompromisingly  sin- 
cere. To  speak  soft  words  to  men  whose  feet  are 
hastening  down  the  road  to  ruin,  how  was  it  pos- 
sible to  do  it?  His  very  sincerity  drove  him  into 
language  which  to  our  cold  hearts  seems  exaggerated 
and  needlessly  abusive.  He  called  the  leaders  in 
Jerusalem  liars,  blind  men,  fools,  serpents,  vipers. 
If  they  were  not  all  this,  then  Jesus  stands  condemned 
for  making  use  of  such  cutting  words.  But  suppose 
these  men  were  precisely  what  such  words  described 
—  then  what  ?  Suppose  they  were  in  very  fact  liars 
and  fools  and  blind  men,  was  it  not  the  duty  of  Jesus 
to  inform  them  of  their  pitiable  condition?  What 
else  could  a  sincere  friend  do?    These  men  sup- 


HIS  SINCERITY  63 

posed  they  could  see  and  were  wise,  but  if  they  were 
mistaken  was  it  not  incumbent  on  an  honest  man  to 
deliver  them  if  possible  from  their  delusion  ?  If  they 
were  venomous,  and  deadly  and  treacherous,  why 
should  they  not  be  likened  to  serpents  and  vipers? 
There  is  not  a  trace  of  bitterness  in  Jesus'  language. 
It  is  the  calm  statement  of  a  horrible  fact.  The 
Lord  of  truth  must  of  necessity  use  words  which 
accurately  characterize  the  persons  who  are  to  be 
instructed  and  warned. 

The  inmost  heart  of  Jesus  finds  utterance  in  his 
declaration  to  Pontius  Pilate  that  he  had  come  into 
the  world  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth.  That  was 
his  work.  He  never  shirked  it.  He  never  grew 
weary  in  doing  it.  He  was  surrounded  all  his  life 
by  men  who  bore  witness  to  falsehoods.  They  lied 
about  him  in  every  city  in  which  he  worked.  They 
misrepresented  his  deeds  and  his  words  and  his 
motives.  They  filled  all  the  air  with  lies.  The  wit- 
nesses who  appeared  against  him  at  his  trial  were 
liars.  But  in  the  midst  of  the  despicable  set  of 
false-minded,  false-hearted  maligners,  and  mur- 
derers he  stood  forth,  calm,  radiant,  the  one  man  in 
all  the  world  whose  lips  had  never  been  sullied  by 
a  falsehood  and  whose  heart  had  never  been  stained 
by  a  lie. 

In  the  centuries  which  have  passed  since  Jesus 
died,  many  strange  and  uncomplimentary  thmgs 
have  been  said  about  him ;  but  it  is  surprising  how 
loath  men  have  been  to  accuse  him  of  deceit.    They 


64  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

have  been  willing  to  say  he  was  mistaken,  they 
have  called  him  a  visionary,  a  fanatic,  an  enthusiast, 
and  dreamer ;  but  no  man  of  sane  mind  or  heart  has 
ever  ventured  to  assert  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was 
an  intentional  deceiver.  Men  have  claimed  that 
his  apostles  were  rogues  and  falsifiers,  that  they 
deliberately  misrepresented  both  his  person  and  his 
teaching ;  but  no  one  has  dared  to  argue  that  Jesus 
himself  was  capable  of  a  lie.  There  is  something 
so  pure  and  frank  and  noble  about  him  that  to  doubt 
his  sincerity  would  be  like  doubting  the  brightness 
of  the  sun. 

This  unquestioned  loyalty  to  truth  gives  his  words 
a  value  which  no  other  words  possess.  When  we 
listen  to  the  words  of  other  men,  we  must  make 
subtractions  and  allowances.  No  man  puts  his 
whole  self  into  his  speech.  His  words  reveal  him 
and  they  also  conceal  him.  There  is  a  discrepancy 
between  the  soul  and  what  the  mouth  declares. 
Not  so  with  Jesus.  He  holds  back  nothing.  What 
he  thinks  he  says,  what  he  feels  he  declares.  He 
tones  down  nothing,  he  exaggerates  nothing.  He 
declares  all  things  as  they  are.  He  is  not  swerved 
by  sin  within  nor  cowed  by  hostile  forces  from 
without.  His  character  is  revealed  in  his  speech. 
A  Chinese  proverb  says  that  words  are  the  sounds 
of  the  heart.  This  is  certainly  true  of  the  words 
of  Jesus.  His  words  are  simply  the  pulsations  of 
his  heart.  They  are  unlike  any  other  words  ever 
spoken.     They  contain  the  full-statured  spirit  of 


HIS  SINCERITY  6$ 

a  man.  In  these  words  his  great  soul  comes  out 
and  stands  before  us,  and  in  them  we  behold  his 
glory. 

This,  then,  is  the  man  we  want.  A  man  like  this 
can  be  a  refuge  in  the  time  of  storm.  To  him  we 
can  flee;  when  sick  at  heart,  because  of  the  decep- 
tions of  the  world,  we  cry  out  in  wretchedness,  "Who 
shall  show  us  any  good?"  When  men  disappoint 
us  and  friends  are  few,  we  can  come  to  one  who 
says,  **I  am  the  truth."  When  we  are  weary  and 
heavy  laden,  we  can  rest  our  souls  upon  one  who  is 
as  certain  as  the  morning  and  as  faithful  as  the 
stars.  The  world  is  filled  with  jangling  voices  and 
it  is  hard  to  know  which  voice  to  trust ;  but  his  voice 
has  in  it  something  which  inspires  assurance  and 
quenches  uncertainty  and  doubt.  What  he  teaches 
about  God  we  can  receive.  What  he  says  of  the 
soul  we  can  believe.  What  he  declares  of  sin  and 
the  penalty  of  sin  we  can  accept.  What  he  tells  us 
of  the  soul  we  can  depend  upon.  What  he  asserts 
concerning  the  principles  of  a  victorious  life  we  can 
act  upon,  never  doubting.  When  he  tells  us  to  do 
a  thing  we  can  do  it,  assured  that  that  is  the  best 
thing  to  do.  When  he  warns  us  against  a  course  of 
action  we  can  shun  it,  knowing  that  in  that  direc- 
tion lie  night  and  death.  The  path  which  he  ex- 
horts us  all  to  take  we  can  take  with  boldness,  con- 
vinced that  if  we  take  it  we  shall  arrive  safe  at  home 
at  last.  When  he  says  that  him  that  cometh  unto 
him  he  will  in  no  wise  cast  off,  we  are  certain  that 


66  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

if  we  come  we  shall  be  received.  When  he  says, 
"  Behold  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock ;  if  any  man 
will  hear  my  voice  and  open  the  door  I  will  come  in 
and  sup  with  him  and  he  with  me,"  we  are  certain 
of  a  heavenly  guest  if  we  want  him.  This,  then,  is 
why  we  feel  so  calm  and  satisfied  with  Jesus:  he 
soothes  and  heals  us  by  being  genuine.  The  heart 
is  always  at  peace  when  it  rests  upon  a  heart  which 
is  sincere. 


VI 

THE  REASONABLENESS   OF   JESUS 


VI 

THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  JESUS 

"In  the  beginning  was  the  logos." 

—  John  i  :  i. 

Let  us  think  of  the  reasonableness  of  Jesus,  of 
his  sanity,  his  level  headedness,  his  common  sense, 
his  soundness  of  mind.  An  illustrious  Roman  poet 
was  convinced  that  man's  supreme  prayer  ought  to 
be  for  a  sound  mind  in  a  healthy  body.  A  sound 
mind  in  a  sound  body  has  been  the  summum  bonum 
aimed  at  by  all  the  great  systems  of  education  both 
ancient  and  modern.  The  ideal  was  realized  in 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Unsoundness  of  mind  is  far 
more  common  than  is  ordinarily  supposed.  The 
mind  altogether  sane  is  rare,  and  there  are  those  who 
declare  that  it  is  never  found  at  all.  The  men  and 
women  imprisoned  in  insane  asylums  are  only  a 
fraction  of  the  host  of  mortals  whose  mental  oper- 
ations are  deranged.  Our  very  language  bears 
pathetic  witness  to  the  wide  range  of  mental  dis- 
turbance. Do  we  not  speak  of  the  crack-brained 
and  of  the  scatter-brained,  and  of  people  who  are 
daft?  There  are  crotchety  brains  and  freakish 
brains,    eccentric    and    erratic    brains,    capricious, 

69 


70  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

whimsical,  and  hysterical  brains,  unhinged  and  un- 
balanced brains  of  many  types  and  grades,  and 
when  a  man  has  a  mind  which  works  normally  and 
sanely,  we  pay  him  the  compliment  of  declaring  him 
to  be  a  man  of  common  sense.  We  call  it  "  common  " 
sense  not  because  it  is  prevalent,  but  because  it  is  a 
combination  of  the  qualities  and  forces  which,  scat- 
tered among  many  individuals,  may  be  said  to  be- 
long to  the  common  race  of  men.  Jesus  was  a  man 
of  unparalleled  common  sense. 

Would  you  see  how  rational  he  is,  study  his  at- 
titude to  life.  There  is  a  widespread  impression, 
especially  among  young  people  of  a  certain  age, 
that  Jesus  is  unreasonable,  and  that  Christianity  is 
a  religion  which  constantly  makes  war  on  reason. 
Young  men  sometimes  say,  "I  do  not  want  to  join 
the  church  because  I  want  to  use  my  reason."  How 
strange  such  language  when  Jesus  from  first  to  last 
pleads  for  the  use  of  the  reason.  Christianity  is  the 
one  religion  of  the  world  which  demands  the  con- 
tinuous and  daring  exercise  of  the  intellect.  Men 
often  think  they  are  using  their  reason  when  in 
fact  they  are  exercising  their  prejudices  or  are  suf- 
fering from  paralysis  of  the  brain.  I  have  heard 
men  rail  at  Christianity  as  unreasonable  because  a 
certain  Christian  man  had  said  a  certain  thing,  as 
though  Jesus  of  Nazareth  must  be  held  responsible 
for  everything  that  every  follower  of  his  may  think 
or  say.  Other  men  have  been  hopelessly  estranged 
from  Christianity  because  of  certain  statements  they 


HIS  REASONABLENESS  yi 

have  read  in  certain  books.  How  unreasonable ! 
It  surely  is  not  fair  to  hold  Jesus  of  Nazareth  re- 
sponsible for  everything  which  men  who  bear  his 
name  may  think  and  publish.  If  men  want  to 
know  whether  Christianity  is  reasonable  or  not, 
why  do  they  not  read  the  Gospels?  They  are  short 
and  can  be  read  through  at  least  once  a  week,  and 
yet  men  go  right  on  refusing  to  read  the  Gospels  — 
the  one  source  of  all  authentic  information  as  to  what 
the  Christian  religion  really  is.  Many  think  nothing 
of  reading  a  novel  of  four  hundred  pages  who  stag- 
ger under  the  task  of  reading  the  four  Gospels.  It 
is  just  such  persons  who  like  to  talk  about  the  un- 
reasonableness of  Christianity.  Why  not  be  reason- 
able? Christianity  has  but  one  authoritative  vol- 
ume.    Why  not  read  it  ? 

Open  your  New  Testament,  then,  and  see  Jesus' 
attitude  to  life.  The  word  "  life  "  was  often  on  his 
lips.  He  loved  the  thing  and  he  therefore  loved  the 
word.  He  wanted  men  to  live.  The  tragedy  of 
the  world  to  him  was  that  human  life  was  every- 
where so  thin  and  meagre.  *'I  came  that  they  may 
have  life,  and  may  have  it  more  abundantly,"  thus 
did  he  express  the  object  of  his  coming.  "  I  am  the 
resurrection  and  the  life,"  "I  am  the  way,  and  the 
truth,  and  the  life."  It  was  in  such  phrases  that 
he  endeavored  to  give  men  an  idea  of  his  mission 
and  his  person.  Men  everywhere  want  to  live,  but 
the  tragedy  of  the  world  is  that  they  do  not  succeed. 
There  is  a  path  which  leads  to  life,  but  there  are 


72  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

only  a  few  who  find  it.  Tennyson  expressed  what 
every  heart  feels  in  his  lines :  — 

"'Tis  life  of  which  my  nerves  are  scant, 
More  life  and  fuller  that  I  want." 

But,  alas !  we  do  the  very  things  which  curtail  the 
capacity  for  living  and  dry  up  the  springs  of  vitality. 
We  are  imitative  creatures,  all  of  us,  and  we  mimic 
the  habits  and  methods  of  those  around  us  to  our 
hurt.  We  are  cowards  all  of  us,  and  we  allow  our- 
selves to  be  hoodwinked  and  browbeaten  and  cheated 
out  of  our  birthright.  We  are  greedy,  all  of  us,  and 
in  our  eagerness  to  secure  the  things  on  which  we 
have  set  our  heart  we  become  feverish  and  wretched, 
losing  out  of  life  its  richest  satisfactions.  We  are 
short-sighted,  all  of  us,  and  in  order  to  attain  im- 
mediate ends  we  barter  away  the  treasures  of  coming 
years.  Life  is  not  full  or  rich  or  sweet  for  many  of 
us  because  we  are  handicapped  by  our  doubts  and 
hampered  by  our  fears  and  enslaved  by  the  un- 
reasonable standards  and  requirements  of  a  foolish 
world.  It  is  the  aim  of  Jesus  to  break  the  fetters 
and  let  life  out  to  its  completion.  To  do  a  thing 
which  reduces  the  volume  and  richness  of  a  man's 
life  is  foolish.  We  are  reasonable  in  our  conduct 
only  when  we  are  doing  things  which  give  life  fuller 
capacity  and  power.  Jesus  was  always  reasoning 
with  men  in  regard  to  the  right  way  of  living.  Life 
to  him  was  ever  the  treasure  of  transcendent  im- 
portance, and  his  question,  "What  shall  it  profit 


HIS  REASONABLENESS  73 

a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his 
life?"  is  one  of  the  sentences  which  having  once 
dropped  into  the  world's  mind  are  sure  to  stay 
forever. 

In  order  to  expose  the  folly  of  men,  Jesus  had 
the  habit  of  asking  questions.  FooHshness  can 
never  be  made  ashamed  of  itself  unless  it  is  com- 
pelled to  look  into  its  own  face.  Men  do  stupid 
and  silly  things  because  they  do  not  think.  They 
would  cease  doing  them  if  they  would  take  time  for 
reflection.  Jesus  was  always  saying,  "What  do  you 
think?"  His  only  hope  for  men  is  in  getting  them 
to  think.  His  attitude  from  first  to  last  is  the  atti- 
tude of  God  as  pictured  by  Isaiah.  He  was  always 
saying,  "Come,  now,  let  us  reason  together." 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  the  part  of  the  New 
Testament  which  is  nowadays  universally  praised, 
and  no  wonder.  Every  sentence  is  a  pearl,  and 
every  paragraph  is  the  classical  expression  of  un- 
adulterated common  sense.  How  sane  is  his  remark 
on  the  subject  of  profanity  !  Swearing  was  common 
in  his  day  as  it  is  also  in  our  own.  But  profanity 
is  always  irrational  and  nonsensical,  and  this  will 
be  admitted  even  by  those  who  indulge  in  it.  The 
Hebrew  had  a  deep-seated  reverence  for  the  name 
of  God,  and  therefore  he  did  not  use  God's  name, 
but  substituted  the  name  of  his  city,  or  God's  throne, 
or  the  earth,  or  the  heavens,  or  his  own  head,  all 
of  which  was  puerile  and  absurd.  And  Jesus  holds 
the  practice  up  to  scorn.     Say  what  you  want  to  say 


74  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

and  then  stop.  "All  superfluous  words  are  both 
needless  and  mischievous."  Is  not  this  common 
sense?  If  a  man  wants  to  express  a  feeling  or  a 
thought,  why  does  he  drag  in  words  which  have  no 
connection  either  with  the  thought  or  the  feeling, 
and  if  he  is  expressing  a  feeling  which  is  low  and 
brutal,  why  should  he  pad  his  sentences  with  the 
most  sacred  names  of  religion?  Profanity  is  a  sin 
against  reason.  There  is  no  sense  in  it.  A  man 
swears  because  he  is  weak,  his  vocabulary  is  limited, 
his  power  of  self-control  is  stunted,  his  brain  acts 
abnormally.  Profanity  is  utterly  senseless  and 
ridiculous.  A  man  who  swears  acts  like  a  fool. 
The  soul  of  Jesus  revolted  against  it  because  it  was 
so  stupid  and  irrational. 

It  is  this  illumination  of  a  mind  altogether  sane 
which  he  brings  to  the  discussion  of  prayer.  Men 
in  the  first  century  had  overdeveloped  the  forms  of 
prayer.  The  body  had  outgrown  the  soul.  Men 
multiplied  words  but  were  poor  in  ideas  and  emo- 
tion. They  said  the  same  thing  over  and  over  again 
and  called  it  praying.  They  repeated  pious  words 
on  the  street  corners  and  were  satisfied  if  their  neigh- 
bors looking  on  called  it  praying.  To  Jesus  all  such 
devotion  was  ridiculous.  If  God  is  an  intelligent 
Being,  what  is  the  use  of  any  such  mummery  and 
mockery  as  this?  If  God  is  Spirit,  then  to  pray  to 
him  is  to  come  into  communion  with  him,  and  you 
can  do  that  best  when  you  are  alone  and  have  shut 
all  the  world  out.     It  is  not  necessary  to  multiply 


HIS  REASONABLENESS 


75 


words,  the  things  essential  being  sincerity  and 
spiritual  contact.  How  sensible,  so  reasonable  that 
it  will  never  become  obsolete.  Equally  sane  is  he 
on  the  subject  of  fasting.  The  exercise  of  fasting 
in  Palestine  had  been  elaborated  into  a  system. 
Men  fasted  by  the  clock.  Precise  rules  were  laid 
down  and  to  obey  these  regulations  punctiliously 
was  the  ambition  of  the  pious.  Men  fasted  not  only 
once  but  several  times  every  week,  and  all  this  was 
supposed  to  be  pleasing  to  God.  But  to  Jesus  the 
whole  system  was  mechanical  and  abominable. 
There  was  no  reason  in  it.  It  was  utterly  formal 
and  deadening  and  stupid.  Moreover,  to  make  a 
display  of  it  and  flaunt  the  signs  of  it  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world  was  contemptible.  Fasting  if  it  is  to  have 
value  at  all  must  be  an  exercise  of  the  soul.  It  is  the 
spirit  which  is  central  and  which  must  control.  It 
is  not  the  abstinence  from  food  which  is  pleasing  to 
the  Almighty,  but  the  condition  of  the  heart  of  the 
person  who  is  doing  the  fasting.  Moreover,  fasting 
cannot  be  done  by  the  clock.  Jesus  refused  to  obey 
the  rules  of  the  Rabbis.  He  did  not  ask  his  disciples 
to  obey  them  either.  Many  punctilious  souls  were 
sorely  distressed.  They  came  to  Jesus  for  an  ex- 
planation. His  reply  carried  them  to  the  very  centre 
of  the  whole  problem.  "  Can  the  sons  of  the  bride- 
chamber  mourn  as  long  as  the  bridegroom  is  with 
them  ?  but  the  days  will  come  when  the  bridegroom 
shall  be  taken  away  from  them,  and  then  will  they 
fast."    How  illuminating  and  sensible!    Fasting  is 


y6  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

a  spiritual  exercise.  The  body  is  to  be  controlled 
by  the  spirit.  There  are  seasons  when  the  soul  is 
jubilant  and  then  fasting  is  not  in  order;  there  are 
seasons  when  the  soul  is  depressed,  and  at  such 
times  the  body  does  not  crave  food.  Fasting  ac- 
cording to  rule  is  irrational.  Such  fasting  is  not  a 
part  of  the  religion  of  Jesus,  but  wherever  it  exists 
in  Christendom  to-day  it  is  merely  a  survival  of 
Judaism. 

Often  Jesus  illuminates  an  entire  region  of 
moral  action  by  a  question.  Many  a  bubble  of 
earthly  vanity  did  he  prick  by  the  sharp  point  of  a 
piercing  interrogation.  "Is  not  the  life  more  than 
food?"  Of  course  it  is.  Everybody  knows  that 
it  is,  the  moment  he  stops  to  think  about  it.  And 
yet  thousands  of  mortals  forget  that  life  comes  first, 
and  by  putting  eating  first  they  rob  life  of  its  glory. 
What  a  deal  of  fussing  there  is  among  people  who 
are  reputed  sensible,  about  the  dishes  and  the  knives 
and  the  forks  and  the  goblets  and  the  number  of 
courses  !  The  simple  act  of  eating  is  elaborated  and 
made  more  and  more  ceremonious  and  complex  until 
women  break  down  under  the  burden,  and  life  loses 
its  zest  and  its  joy.  "Is  not  the  body  more  than 
raiment?"  Yes,  it  is,  now  that  we  stop  to  think 
about  it ;  but  it  would  seem,  were  we  to  judge  from 
the  conduct  of  a  considerable  part  of  the  world,  that 
the  raiment  is  more  than  the  body.  Thousands 
fashion  their  lives  upon  the  principle  that  the  clothes 
are  first  and  the  body  second.    What  the  body  needs 


H/S  REASONABLENESS  77 

in  order  that  every  organ  in  it  may  do  easily  and 
healthfully  its  appointed  work,  is  in  many  cases 
not  at  all  considered.  Rather  the  question  is: 
What  is  the  fashion  ?  What  does  the  world  of  style 
demand?  The  clothes  are  hung  up  and  the  body 
is  made  to  conform  to  the  clothes,  even  though  the 
body  may  be  made  to  suffer  in  the  operation  and  the 
volume  of  physical  life  be  dangerously  diminished. 
Who  can  number  the  people  who  are  dragging  out 
an  existence  pallid  and  nerveless,  all  because  they 
have  made  the  raiment  of  more  moment  than  the 
body? 

To  the  clear  eye  of  Jesus  all  such  conduct 
is  insensate  and  wicked.  Life  comes  first.  Human 
beings  must  dress  in  ways  which  shall  best  conserve 
the  physical  resources  of  the  body  and  make  it 
easiest  for  the  body  to  live  the  life  which  God  has 
appointed  it  to  live.  That  is  reasonable,  even 
though  the  whole  world  should  deny  it.  His  ques- 
tions always  pierce.  "Is  not  a  man  better  than  a 
sheep?"  Of  course  he  is,  even  though  the  foolish 
world  does  not  always  act  as  though  it  believed  it. 
In  the  first  century  men  were  far  more  solicitous 
about  the  well-being  of  their  cattle  than  about  the 
welfare  of  men  who  were  not  linked  to  them  by  ties 
of  blood.  This  form  of  barbarism  has  not  yet 
entirely  passed  away.  A  horse  cannot  fall  in  the 
street  of  any  American  city  without  men  rushing 
at  once  to  its  assistance  and  getting  it  again  on  its 
feet.    A  horse  down  in  the  street  is  a  sight  intoler- 


yS  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

able.  But  a  man  down  in  the  street  dead  drunk 
in  some  nook  or  corner  is  a  sight  which  makes 
boys  laugh,  and  even  grown  men  pass  by  him  with- 
out even  so  much  as  a  thought  of  pity.  Society  is 
not  yet  reasonable  in  its  treatment  of  animals  and 
men. 

Jesus  would  not  allow  himself  to  be  swayed 
or  daunted  by  institutions  however  sacred.  Among 
the  Jews  there  was  no  institution  held  in  higher 
reverence  than  the  Sabbath.  So  deep  was  the  rev- 
erence that  it  degenerated  into  slavery.  The  day 
was  made  so  holy  that  there  was  no  living  with  it. 
The  rules  of  Sabbath  observance  were  so  numerous 
that  one  could  not  turn  round  without  breaking 
several  of  them.  The  reported  discussions  of  the 
most  sensible  men  in  Palestine  on  Sabbath  observance 
in  the  days  of  Jesus  amaze  us  by  their  puerility  and 
senselessness.  Jesus  saw  at  once  through  all  the 
mass  of  rubbish  which  had  accumulated  round  the 
subject,  and  laid  down  a  maxim  which  shed  light 
brilliant  as  the  sun  at  noon.  "The  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath."  The 
life  of  man  is  the  first  thing  to  consider  always. 
The  day  is  the  servant  of  the  man.  Is  it  lawful  to 
do  good  on  the  Sabbath  Day?  Is  it  lawful  to  save 
life  on  the  Sabbath?  It  was  with  such  questions 
that  he  punctured  the  inflated  reasonings  of  the 
Jerusalem  dunces,  and  set  men  free  from  a  bondage 
which  had  become  intolerable.  His  view  of  Sab- 
bath observance  is  reasonable. 


HIS  REASONABLENESS  79 

But  time  would  fail  to  deal  with  all  the  evidences 
of  his  matchless  common  sense.  He  put  to  flight  a 
whole  troop  of  simpletons  by  the  quiet  remark, 
"They  that  are  whole  have  no  need  of  a  physician, 
but  they  that  are  sick."  He  asked  men  to  do  great 
things,  but  he  always  gave  them  a  reason  why  they 
should  follow  his  instructions.  The  foolish  heart 
is  always  devising  new  objections  to  prayer,  but  he 
overthrows  all  the  objections  which  have  ever  been 
offered  or  ever  can  be  offered  by  his  simple  question : 
*'What  man  is  there  of  you,  who,  if  his  son  shall 
ask  him  for  a  loaf,  will  give  him  a  stone?  or  if  he 
shall  ask  for  a  fish  will  give  him  a  serpent?  If  ye 
then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that 
ask  him?"  To  be  sure  !  All  that  is  best  in  us  must 
be  rooted  in  the  deep  heart  of  God.  The  fact  that 
we  love  to  give  good  things  to  our  children  is  proof 
that  that  same  disposition  exists  in  the  heart  of  the 
Eternal  Father.  We  should  never  have  had  the 
disposition  had  he  not  had  it  first.  If  we  give,  of 
course  He  gives  and  will  forever  give.  How  reason- 
able !  How  unanswerable !  All  arguments  against 
prayer  are  unreasonable.  There  is  one  sentence  in 
the  New  Testament  which  by  the  vote  of  the  world 
has  been  counted  golden:  "All  things,  therefore, 
whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you, 
even  so  do  ye  also  unto  them."  What  is  this  but 
perfect  sense? 


8o  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

But  some  one  may  ask:  Does  not  Christianity 
insist  upon  a  namby-pamby  attitude  to  the  forces 
of  the  world?  Does  Jesus  not  virtually  exhort  his 
disciples  to  lie  down  and  let  men  walk  over  them? 
No.  You  have  gotten  that  idea  from  books  other 
than  the  New  Testament.  Jesus  is  sensible  at  every 
point.  "  Give  not  that  which  is  holy  unto  the  dogs, 
neither  cast  your  pearls  before  the  swine,  lest  haply 
they  trample  them  under  their  feet  and  turn  and  rend 
you."  Who  are  the  dogs?  A  certain  kind  of  men. 
Who  are  the  swine  ?  Another  type  of  men.  We  are 
to  discriminate.  All  men  are  not  alike.  All  men 
are  not  to  be  treated  alike.  There  were  men  on 
whom  Jesus  turned  his  back.  There  were  men 
whom  Jesus  refused  to  answer.  The  High  Priest 
was  amazed  because  he  held  his  tongue.  Pontius 
Pilate  was  enraged  because  his  prisoner  would  not 
answer  him.  Here  again  we  have  common  sense 
perfected.  Some  of  us  are  foolish  enough  to  think 
we  must  answer  every  dunce  who  chatters,  reply  to 
every  question  which  is  asked.  Such  is  not  our  duty. 
When  Jesus  sent  his  disciples  out  to  preach,  he  told 
them  if  people  were  unwilling  to  listen  to  them,  to 
shake  the  dust  from  their  sandals  against  them  and 
go  somewhere  else.  He  followed  that  plan  himself. 
No  limp  and  sugary  weakling  was  he.  He  faced 
men  when  necessary  with  a  flash  of  indignation  that 
frightened  them  and  poured  out  upon  them  words 
which  raised  blisters.  Nowhere  is  he  more  sensible 
than  in  his  attitude  to  bad  men. 


HIS  REASONABLENESS  8 1 

But  some  one  says,  "Is  he  not  unreasonable  in 
demanding  that  we  believe  a  lot  of  doctrines  which 
we  cannot  understand?'*  Where  does  he  demand 
that?  Put  your  finger  on  the  place,  for  I  cannot 
find  it.  When  I  open  the  New  Testament  I  hear 
him  saying:  "Follow  me!  Follow  me!"  That  is 
his  favorite  exhortation.  And  when  men  wanted 
to  know  how  they  were  to  ascertain  whether  or  not 
he  was  indeed  a  leader  worthy  of  being  followed, 
his  reply  was,  "If  any  man  willeth  to  do  His  will, 
he  shall  know  of  the  teaching  whether  it  be  of  God, 
or  whether  I  speak  from  myself."  Is  this  not 
reasonable?  Jesus  says  if  you  want  to  understand 
the  Christian  life,  then  work  at  it.  If  you  desire 
to  know  the  truth,  then  live  it.  This  is  common 
sense.  How  else  could  one  find  the  truth  of  a  re- 
ligion if  he  did  not  work  at  it  ?  If  you  want  to  learn 
to  speak  Italian,  you  do  not  simply  think  about  it, 
or  read  about  it,  but  you  go  to  work  on  it.  It 
requires  a  deal  of  work,  but  no  matter.  You  can- 
not learn  a  language  without  making  mistakes,  and 
the  only  thing  to  do  is  to  keep  on  working.  Just  so 
is  it  with  the  Christian  life.  Men  imagine  they  can 
become  Christians  by  thinking  about  it,  or  by  read- 
ing about  it,  or  by  hearing  a  preacher  talk  about  it. 
How  absurd!  You  can  never  become  a  Christian 
until  you  are  willing  to  work  at  it.  Are  you  willing 
to  begin  now? 


VII 

THE  POISE   OF   JESUS 


VII 

THE  POISE  OF  JESUS 

"No  man  after  that  durst  ask  him  any  question." 

—  Mark  xii  :  34. 

By  the  poise  of  Jesus  I  mean  the  fine  balance  of  't- 
his  faculties,  the  equilibrium  of  his  nature.  Every 
boy  knows  what  it  is  to  balance  a  cane  on  his  hand, 
or  to  poise  a  cane  by  resting  one  end  of  it  on  the  tip 
of  his  finger.  After  a  little  practice  it  is  possible 
for  him  to  hold  the  cane  absolutely  erect.  This 
equilibrium  is  a  state  of  rest  brought  about  by  the 
counteraction  of  two  or  more  opposing  forces.  Just 
so  a  man  can  poise  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  storms 
of  this  boisterous  world.  This  equilibrium  is  due 
j&rst  of  all  to  a  certain  balance  of  faculty.  How 
rarely  do  we  find  well-balanced  men  !  The  average 
man  is  one-sided,  unsymmetrical,  unevenly  devel- 
oped. When  a  man  is  unsymmetrical  in  his  body, 
we  pity  him.  If  one  arm  is  much  longer  than  the 
other  arm,  or  one  leg  is  much  shorter  than  the  other 
leg,  or  one  ear  is  much  larger  than  the  other  ear,  we 
say  he  is  deformed,  and  his  deformity  calls  forth  our 
pity. 

But  this    lack    of    symmetrical   development  in 
85 


f 


86  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  body  is  nothing  compared  with  the  lack  of 
symmetry  in  the  mind.  It  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  a 
man  or  a  woman  deformed  in  his  body;  it  is  a  rare 
thing  not  to  find  a  man  deformed  in  his  spirit.  We 
are  all  overdeveloped  on  one  side  of  our  nature  and 
underdeveloped  on  the  other.  It  seems  to  be  well- 
nigh  impossible  to  keep  our  faculties  in  even  balance. 
If  we  are  strong  in  certain  characteristics,  we  are 
,  well-nigh  certain  to  be  weak  in  the  opposite  char- 
acteristics. If  we  are  enthusiastic,  tremendously 
enthusiastic,  our  enthusiasm  pushes  ahead  until  it 
becomes  fanaticism.  If  we  are  emotional,  exceed- 
ingly emotional,  our  emotion  degenerates  into  hys- 
terics. If  we  are  imaginative,  very  imaginative, 
unless  we  are  on  our  guard  we  become  flighty  and 
visionary.  If  we  are  practical,  very  level-headed, 
we  are  always  in  danger  of  becoming  prosaic  and 
dull.  If  we  have  courage  in  great  abundance,  our 
courage  passes  readily  into  recklessness.  If  we  are 
prudent,  our  prudence  is  always  on  the  point  of 
degenerating  into  cowardice.  If  we  are  original 
and  unique,  our  uniqueness  is  always  in  danger  of 
passing  into  eccentricity.  If  we  are  sympathetic, 
our  sympathy  is  likely  to  run  into  sentimentalism. 
If  we  are  pious,  our  piety  has  a  tendency  to  become 
sanctimoniousness.  If  we  are  religious,  our  religion 
tends  to  slip  into  superstition.  Every  virtue  when 
pushed  beyond  its  appointed  limit  becomes  a  vice, 
and  every  grace  when  overdeveloped  becomes  a 
defect  and  disfiguration.     Look  around  upon  the 


H/S  POISE  zy 

men  and  women  that  you  know,  and  in  how  many 
of  them  can  you  say  that  their  disposition  is  finely 
balanced  ?  "  Oh,  if  he  did  not  have  so  much  of  that ! " 
"  Oh,  if  he  only  had  a  little  more  of  this  !  "  That  is 
what  we  always  feel  when  the  characters  of  men 
pass  before  us  for  judgment.  "  He  would  be  an 
ideal  man  —  but  — ,"  "  She  would  be  a  queen  among 
women  —  but — ."  There  is  always  just  a  little 
something  lacking  to  make  the  character  what 
it  ought  to  be. 

But  when  we  come  to  Jesus  we  find  ourselves  in 
the  presence  of  a  man  without  a  flaw.  He  was 
enthusiastic,  blazing  with  enthusiasm,  but  he  never 
became  fanatical.  He  was  emotional,  men  could 
feel  the  throbbing  of  his  heart,  but  he  never  became 
hysterical.  He  was  imaginative,  full  of  poetry  and 
music,  seeing  pictures  everywhere,  throwing  upon 
everything  he  touched  a  light  that  never  was  on  land 
or  sea,  the  inspiration  and  the  poet's  dream  —  but  he 
was  never  flighty.  He  was  practical,  hard-headed, 
matter  of  fact,  but  he  was  never  prosaic,  never  dull. 
His  life  always  had  in  it  the  glamour  of  romance. 
He  was  courageous  but  never  reckless,  prudent  but 
never  a  coward,  unique  but  not  eccentric,  sympathetic 
but  never  sentimental.  Great  streams  of  sympathy 
flowed  from  his  tender  heart  toward  those  who 
needed  sympathy,  but  at  the  same  time  streams  of 
lava  flowed  from  the  same  heart  to  scorch  and  over- 
whelm the  workers  of  iniquity.  He  was  pious,  but 
there  is  not  a  trace  about  him  of  sanctimoniousness. 


H 


88  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

All  the  oily  disgusting  piety  which  has  been  carica- 
tured in  the  books  is  the  product  of  undeveloped 
hearts  and  minds  far  removed  from  the  piety  of  his 
robust  soul.  He  was  religious,  the  most  profoundly 
religious  man  that  ever  turned  his  face  toward  God, 
but  never  once  did  he  slip  into  superstition.  And 
because  he  is  so  well  rounded  and  on  every  side  so 
complete,  men  have  never  known  where  to  class 
him.  Of  what  temperament  was  he?  It  is  im- 
possible to  say.  Every  man  on  coming  to  him  finds 
in  him  what  he  wants.  He  had  in  him  all  the  virtues, 
and  not  one  of  them  was  overgrown.  He  exhibited 
all  the  graces,  and  every  one  of  them  was  in  perfect 
bloom.  He  stands  in  history  as  the  one  man  beauti- 
ful, symmetrical,  absolutely  perfect. 

Out  of  this  balance  of  his  powers  comes  his  un- 
rivalled poise  in  conduct.  He  lived  always  in  a 
whirlwind,  —  men  bent  like  reeds  around  him,  —  he 
never  so  much  as  wavered.  Men  laid  their  traps 
and  tried  to  catch  him,  he  walked  bravely  in  the 
midst  of  them  and  never  was  entrapped.  The 
intellectual  athletes  of  his  time  tried  to  trip  him  — 
they  never  did.  His  enemies  did  their  best  to  upset 
him  —  they  never  could.  They  flung  their  lassos 
at  his  head  —  they  never  got  a  lasso  round  his  neck. 
They  dug  their  pits  —  he  never  tumbled  into  them. 
Wherever  he  went  he  was  surrounded  by  enemies 
waiting  to  catch  him  in  his  talk  —  they  never  caught 
him.  They  asked  him  all  sorts  of  questions,  expect- 
ing that  by  his  answers  he  would  incriminate  him- 


HIS  POISE  89 

self  —  he  never  did.  They  brought  out  to  him  one 
dilemma  after  another,  saying  we  will  catch  him  on 
one  horn  or  the  other  —  but  he  escaped  them  every 
time.  After  they  had  done  their  best  they  retired 
vanquished  from  the  field.  He  remained  undisputed 
conqueror. 

This  wonderful  poise  came  out  in  the  temple  when 
he  was  only  a  boy  of  twelve.  The  old  men  in  the 
midst  of  whom  he  sat  were  astounded  at  his  answers. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  public  career  he  heard  the 
seductive  voices  sounding  in  his  ears.  Time  and 
again  the  evil  one  came  to  him  with  a  new  allurement, 
but  every  time  he  hurled  the  tempter  back  by  quot- 
ing just  the  passage  of  Scripture  which  that  tempta- 
tion needed.  Men  tried  to  convict  him  of  breaking 
the  law  in  regard  to  the  Sabbath  day,  but  instantly 
he  proved  from  Scripture  and  from  reason  that  what 
he  did  was  right.  Men  interrupted  him  in  the  midst 
of  his  preaching,  but  he  was  never  disconcerted. 
*'Make  my  brother,"  cried  a  man,  ''divide  the 
inheritance  with  me."  And  quick  as  a  flash  the 
answer  came:  "Who  made  me  a  ruler  over  you? 
Let  me  tell  you  and  everybody  else  to  beware  of 
covetousness."  When  Peter  at  Philippi  began  to 
protest  against  his  going  to  Jerusalem  where  he 
would  be  killed,  Jesus  said,  "  Get  thee  behind  me, 
Satan."  He  had  heard  that  voice  before.  He  recog- 
nized it  even  on  the  lips  of  his  friend.  It  is  one  of 
the  devil's  last  resources  to  speak  through  the  mouth 
of  a  friend.     Such  a  trick  cannot  deceive  Jesus. 


t 


90  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

On  the  last  Tuesday  of  his  life  they  determined 
to  undo  him.  All  the  different  parties  united  their 
forces  and  put  their  heads  together  and  concocted 
schemes  by  means  of  which  this  young  prophet 
should  be  brought  to  prison.  The  Pharisees  go  to 
him  with  this  question:  "Is  it  lawful  to  pay  tribute 
to  Caesar?"  It  was  an  insidious  question.  If  he 
said  "yes,"  then  that  would  make  him  hateful  to 
every  patriotic  Jew,  for  no  Jew  who  had  a  patriotic 
heart  believed  it  was  right  to  pay  Jewish  money 
into  a  Gentile  treasury.  If  on  the  other  hand  he 
said  "no,"  then  he  proved  himself  to  be  a  traitor  to 
Rome,  and  the  Roman  officials  could  immediately 
pounce  down  on  him.  What  will  he  do?  Holding 
a  piece  of  money  in  his  hands  he  says,  "Whose 
superscription  is  this?"  And  when  they  say 
"  Caesar's,"  he  hands  the  money  back  to  them,  saying, 
"  Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and 
unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's."  The  Phari- 
sees were  conceited  people,  but  after  that  they  durst 
ask  him  no  more  questions.  There  was  a  scribe 
who  thought  he  would  try  his  hand.  "What  is  the 
great  commandment  of  the  law?"  he  said,  to  which 
Jesus  replied,  "Love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  "But  who 
is  my  neighbor?"  And  then  Jesus  told  him  about 
the  priest  and  the  Levite  and  the  Samaritan  who  saw 
the  man  by  the  wayside.  After  he  had  told  the 
story  he  thrust  this  question  into  the  man's  heart: 
"  Which  one  of  the  three  was  neighbor  to  the  man 


HIS  POISE 


91 


who  fell  among  the  robbers?"  After  that  the 
scribes  asked  him  no  more  questions.  The  time 
comes  when  he  is  seized  and  carried  before  Caiaphas, 
and  the  marvelous  poise  of  the  prophet  disconcerts 
and  dumfounds  the  high  priest.  Unable  to  do 
anything  with  him  he  sends  him  to  Pilate.  Pilate 
questions  him  and  becomes  afraid  of  him.  What  a 
picture!  The  prophet  of  Galilee  erect,  calm,  im- 
movable, saying,  "To  this  purpose  was  I  born,  and 
for  this  end  came  I  into  the  world,  to  bear  witness  to 
the  truth."  See  Pilate  cringing,  cowering,  shuffling, 
washing  his  hands  and  saying  he  does  not  propose 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  such  a  man.  Jesus  has 
poise,  and  Pilate,  representative  of  the  Eternal  City, 
servant  of  an  empire  of  blood  and  iron  —  has  no 
poise  at  all.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  notwith- 
standing Jesus  was  speaking  constantly  in  public  for 
three  years,  not  one  of  his  enemies  was  able  to  catch 
him  in  his  speech,  and  when  at  last  they  convicted 
him  they  had  to  do  it  on  a  trumped-up  lie. 

This  also  is  noteworthy  that  not  one  of  the 
enemies  of  Jesus  was  able  by  unfairness  or  false- 
hood or  hatred  to  push  Jesus  into  a  hasty  word  or 
an  unrighteous  mood.  Most  men  are  so  poorly 
balanced  you  can  push  them  with  very  little  pressure 
into  an  unmanly  speech,  into  an  unchristian  dispo- 
sition. Jesus  was  so  firmly  poised  that  under  the 
pressure  of  the  most  venomous  vituperation  that 
has  ever  been  hurled  against  a  man,  he  stood  erect, 
unmoved,  and  unmovable.     His  poise  was  divine. 


92  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

Because  he  is  so  well  balanced  and  so  finely  poised, 
each  succeeding  generation  comes  back  to  him  for 
inspiration.  Is  it  not  remarkable  that  the  men  of 
the  first  century  thought  they  saw  in  him  the  ideal 
figure  of  what  a  man  should  be,  and  that  men  in 
the  fourth  century  looking  at  him  felt  the  same, 
and  that  men  in  the  tenth  century  looking  at  him 
felt  the  same,  and  that  men  in  the  sixteenth  century 
looking  at  him  agreed  with  all  the  centuries  that 
went  before,  and  that  men  in  the  twentieth  century 
looking  at  him  feel  that  in  him  they  find  a  perfect 
pattern  ?  I  Men  of  intellect  who  live  the  intellectual 
life  look  TO  him  for  guidance  and  instruction,  men 
of  emotion  who  desire  to  replenish  the  springs  of 
feeling  look  to  him  for  inspiration,  men  of  high 
aspirations  who  desire  to  lift  the  soul  sit  humbly 
at  his  feet  confessing  that  he  has  the  words  of  life. 
And  now  that  new  and  complicated  problems  have 
arisen  in  commercial  life,  and  industrial  life,  and 
social  life,  men  are  turning  wistfully  toward  him, 
feeling  that  he  has  the  key  which  will  unlock  all  the 
doors,  that  he  knows  the  secret  of  a  complete  and 
perfect  life.  There  is  a  grace  about  him  which  does 
not  fade,  there  is  a  sanity  about  him  which  compels 
respect,  there  is  a  charm  about  him  which  wooes 
and  wins  the  heart,  and  we  like  preceding  genera- 
tions fall  down  before  him  acknowledging  that  his 
character  is  without  a  flaw  and  that  his  life  is  without 
a  blemish.   ; 


VIII 
THE   ORIGINALITY   OF   JESUS 


VIII 

THE  ORIGINALITY  OF  JESUS 

"I  make  all  things  new." 

—  Revelation  xxi :  $. 

The  word  "originality*'  does  not  occur  in  the 
New  Testament,  for  no  one  in  Palestine  ever  raised 
the  question  whether  Jesus  was  original  or  not. 
Every  one  took  it  for  granted  that  he  was.  Wherever 
he  went  the  eyes  of  men  opened  wide.  Judea  had 
become  a  drowsy  place,  but  Jesus  by  his  teaching 
shook  it  out  of  its  lethargy  and  sleep.  Wherever 
he  went  men  were  stirred  to  fever  heat  by  what  they 
saw  and  by  what  they  heard,  and  cried  out  in  aston- 
ishment, "We  have  never  seen  it  after  this  fashion." 
His  teaching  itself  struck  Jesus'  contemporaries  as 
novel.  "A  new  teaching!"  was  the  exclamation 
which  followed  many  of  his  discourses.  It  was  the 
opinion  of  his  severest  critics  that  no  man  had  ever 
spoken  as  he  was  speaking.  There  was  something 
in  the  manner  as  well  as  in  the  matter  which  arrested 
attention  and  threw  a  fresh  light  upon  God  and  men. 
There  had  been  many  a  teacher  in  Palestine,  but  not 
one  of  his  predecessors  had  spoken  with  his  accent. 

95 


96  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

The  common  people  observed  at  once  that  his  manner 
was  not  the  manner  of  the  professional  teacher  of 
the  land.  He  taught  them  as  one  who  possessed 
authority.  The  man  himself,  men  soon  saw,  was 
different  from  other  men  then  Hving.  Sometimes 
they  imagined  he  might  indeed  be  one  of  the  giants 
of  the  early  centuries  returned  to  the  earth  again, 
and  at  other  times  they  could  offer  no  explanation 
for  his  genius,  simply  exclaiming,  "What  manner 
of  man  is  this !''  It  was  because  Jesus  was  different 
from  all  other  men  of  his  day  and  generation  that 
he  created  a  sensation  which  left  the  nation  quiver- 
ing. If  he  had  repeated  the  old  teachings  in  the 
old  fashion,  he  would  not  have  infuriated  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  and  brought  about  the  tragedy  of 
Golgotha.  He  was  too  original  to  be  endurable, 
he  advanced  too  many  strange  and  revolutionary 
ideas  to  make  it  safe  for  the  land  to  hold  him ;  it  was 
because  he  made  all  things  new  that  they  nailed  him 
to  the  cross. 

Strange  to  say,  the  world  has  come  at  last  to  ques- 
tion the  originality  of  Jesus.  This  is  one  of  the 
fiercely  debated  questions  of  our  day.  Numerous 
schools  of  Bible  students  have  vigorously  denied  his 
originality,  and  with  industry  and  ingenuity  have 
demonstrated  that  everything  he  said  had  been  said 
before,  and  that  to  the  world  of  thought  he  has  not 
contributed  a  single  fresh  idea.  His  language,  even, 
so  these  men  assert,  is  taken  from  the  poets  and  the 
prophets,  while  every  one  of  his  conceptions  can  be 


HIS  ORIGINALITY  97 

found  in  the  literature  of  earlier  days.  To  make 
out  their  case  these  deniers  of  Jesus'  originality 
have  ransacked  the  Old  Testament  in  search  of 
phrases  similar  to  those  which  Jesus  used,  and 
through  all  the  extant  writings  of  the  ancient  Rabbis 
they  have  made  their  way  looking  with  keen  and 
eager  eyes  for  evidence  that  Jesus'  best  ideas  were 
borrowed.  Nor  has  the  attention  been  confined  to 
Hebrew  hterature  alone.  The  sacred  books  of 
distant  Oriental  lands  have  been  summoned  to  give 
their  testimony  to  prove  that  this  Hebrew  prophet 
was  after  all  a  plagiarist  or  an  echo.  The  supposi- 
tion has  been  advanced  that  possibly  at  some  time 
in  his  life  Jesus  may  have  traveled  into  India  gather- 
ing up  ideas  there  for  the  instruction  of  his  people. 
According,  therefore,  to  certain  writers,  Jesus'  dis- 
courses are  a  patchwork  of  quotations.  He  was  a 
repeater  of  the  wisdom  taught  by  men  before  his  day, 
an  imitator  of  illustrious  orators  and  poets,  a  shrewd 
and  talented  eclectic  who  gathered  together  the  gems 
of  many  minds  and  times  and  dazzled  the  world  by 
the  treasures  which  he  had  borrowed. 

What  shall  we  say  to  all  this?  Was  Jesus  really 
original?  This  subject  of  originality  is  always  pro- 
vocative of  discussion.  No  man  has  ever  claimed 
to  be  original  whose  claim  has  not  been  disputed. 
No  genius  has  ever  been  placed  among  the  thinkers 
of  the  world  without  stirring  up  a  host  of  critics  who 
have  vehemently  denied  his  right  to  a  place  there. 
Molibre  is  probably  the  most  creative  and  inventive 


98  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

genius  which  France  has  yet  produced,  but  there  were 
Frenchmen  in  his  day,  and  there  have  been  French- 
men since  his  day,  who  have  declared  that  he  stole 
half  his  works  from  the  old  bookstalls.  England's 
most  original  poet  is  Shakespeare,  but  by  his  con- 
temporaries he  was  accused  of  masquerading  in 
the  brilliant  plumage  of  other  birds,  and  there  are 
those  who,  familiar  with  the  French  and  Italian 
writings  from  which  the  English  poet  drew  his 
material,  are  unwilling  to  concede  the  claim  that  his 
mind  was  indeed  original.  No  American  writer 
has  been  more  suggestive  than  Ralph  Waldo  Emer- 
son, but  to  many  students  of  literature  he  is  little 
more  than  a  gleaner  in  the  wide  fields  of  thought, 
his  essays  being  counted  strings  of  gems  borrowed 
from  the  kings  and  queens  of  other  lands  and  times. 
Was  Jesus  then  original?  It  depends  on  what 
you  mean  by  originality.  If  to  be  original  one  must 
coin  words  never  heard  before  and  speak  in  phrases 
which  no  other  tongue  has  ever  used,  then  Jesus  was 
not  original.  He  coined  no  new  words  and  many  of 
his  phrases  have  the  flavor  of  the  olden  times.  Nor 
was  he  the  proclaimer  of  ideas  that  had  never  entered 
man's  mind  before.  All  his  main  ideas  of  God  and 
the  soul,  of  duty,  and  of  destiny  had  been  if  not 
expanded  in  the  writings  of  the  Hebrew  poets  and 
prophets  at  least  suggested  there,  and  the  principles 
of  conduct  which  Jesus  taught  were  for  the  most 
part  the  very  principles  which  had  been  proclaimed 
by  men  of  God  before  his  day.     This  may  be  sur- 


H/S  ORIGINALITY 


99 


prising  to  those  who  have  not  given  the  subject 
careful  thought,  but  on  reflection  you  will  see  that 
this  is  just  what  might  reasonably  have  been  ex- 
pected. If  there  is  a  God  who  loves  our  race,  it  is 
incredible  that  no  correct  idea  of  Deity  or  the  soul, 
of  duty  or  of  destiny,  should  have  entered  the  human 
mind  before  Jesus  was  born  in  Bethlehem.  Sad 
indeed  it  would  have  been  had  Jesus,  on  coming  to 
the  earth,  found  no  conceptions  in  men's  minds  which 
corresponded  to  the  truth,  and  no  feelings  in  their 
hearts  which  God  could  take  delight  in.  The  fact 
is  that  God  has  never  left  himself  without  a  witness. 
The  Son  of  God  has  always  been  in  the  world.  He 
is  the  light  that  lights  every  man  who  is  born.  From 
the  beginning  he  has  been  giving  men  right  ideas 
and  right  feelings  and  helping  them  to  reach  right 
conclusions  and  decisions.  We  ought,  therefore, 
to  expect  nothing  in  Jesus'  teaching  absolutely 
unthought  of  before  his  incarnation.  We  ought  to 
expect  to  find  just  what  we  do  find,  that  everything 
he  taught  had  been  anticipated,  and  that  all  his 
cardinal  ideas  had  existed  in  germ  in  the  writings  of 
holy  men  who  at  divers  times  had  been  moved  by 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Jesus  instead  of  suggesting  ideas 
never  before  heard  of,  and  expounding  truths  of 
which  no  man  had  ever  conceived,  picked  up  the 
ancient  writings,  declaring  that  they  contain  the 
word  of  the  Almighty  and  that  he  had  come  to  inter- 
pret their  meaning  and  to  fulfil  what  the  poets  and 
prophets  had  dreamed.     He  did  not  come  to  destroy 


100  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  old  ideas  or  the  old  truths.  He  came  to  fill  full. 
There  had  been  foreshadowings  and  anticipations 
and  approximations,  and  now  in  the  fulness  of  time 
God  is  going  to  speak  His  full-toned  message  through 
His  Son. 

It  is  at  this  point,  then,  that  we  are  to  look  for  the 
originality  of  Jesus.  We  shall  not  find  it  in  his 
phrases  or  even  in  his  conceptions,  but  rather  in  his 
emphasis  and  his  manner  of  reading  Hfe  and  the 
world.  He  began  by  reading  an  old  chapter  in 
Isaiah,  but  he  gave  it  an  emphasis  which  it  had 
never  known  before,  the  result  being  that  it  burst 
upon  the  congregation  in  Nazareth  with  the  force 
of  a  fresh  revelation.  Men  were  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures, but  they  did  not  know  which  words  to  empha- 
size. Jesus  understood.  The  result  was  that  the 
Scripture  became  new.  Religion  is  partly  ceremony 
and  partly  ethics.  Like  all  things  else  on  earth,  it 
must  have  a  body  and  also  a  spirit.  But  the  leaders 
of  the  Jewish  church  had  forgotten  the  point  of 
emphasis.  Jesus  knew.  By  emphasizing  mercy  in- 
stead of  sacrifice  he  made  religion  new.  Men  had 
forgotten  how  to  read  the  world.  There  were  insti- 
tutions and  there  were  human  beings,  and  the  wisest 
men  of  Israel  had  forgotten  which  is  most  important, 
—  an  institution  or  a  man.  Jesus  threw  the  em- 
^  phasis  on  the  individual  soul  and  by  so  doing  opened 

a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

There  was  also  an  accent  in  his  teaching  which 
men  had  never  heard  before,  not  even  in  the  voice  of 


'^ 


HIS  ORIGINALITY^     ^        y.^fO^, 

Moses  or  Elijah.  It  was  the  accent  of  assurance, 
certainty,  authority.  It  is  not  the  words  which  a 
man  speaks,  but  the  way  in  which  he  speaks  them 
which  determines  their  effect  upon  the  life  of  the 
world.  No  such  an  accent  as  that  of  Jesus  had 
ever  before  been  heard  in  Palestine.  There  was 
never  a  quaver  in  his  voice.  In  no  discourse  was 
there  anything  problematic.  He  never  hesitated, 
speculated,  made  use  of  intonations  which  indicate 
a  wavering  mind.  He  was  always  positive,  certain, 
infallible.  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  imto  you."  Such 
was  the  manner  of  his  speech,  and  it  was  a  manner 
which  he  caught  from  none  other. 

The  new  accent  and  the  new  emphasis  were  the 
product  of  a  new  personality.  No  personality  like 
that  of  Jesus  had  ever  been  encased  in  flesh  before. 
He  was  a  new  man.  Even  Roman  soldiers  could 
feel  that  he  was  different  from  every  other  man  they 
had  ever  known.  He  had  all  the  faculties  and  pas- 
sions of  our  common  humanity,  and  yet  no  one 
had  ever  had  them  in  the  combination  and  in  the 
strength  in  which  they  were  found  in  him.  Some 
one  has  said  that  in  all  schools  of  art  an  artist  is 
praised  not  for  what  is  different  in  him  from  others, 
but  only  for  doing  most  strongly  what  all  are  en- 
deavoring. Jesus  was  man  completed.  What  a 
fulness  of  life  there  was  in  him !  What  a  power  he 
had.  The  world. of  nature  responded  to  the  gentlest 
touch  of  his  finger-tips.  He  was  different  from  all 
other  men  that  had  ever  been,  and  he  said  so.    He 


] 


X02  CHAEACTER   OF  JESUS 

lifted  himself  into  a  unique  position  and  claimed  for 
himself  privileges  and  rights  which  he  denied  to  all 
others.  He  claimed  to  be  the  light  of  the  world,  the 
bread  of  life,  the  water  of  life,  the  only  good  shepherd, 
the  way,  the  truth,  the  life,  the  only  mediator  between 
God  and  man,  the  only  one  who  knows  deity  com- 
pletely and  who  can  save  the  world  from  its  sins. 
Here  we  strike  something  which  is  unique  and  in 
every  sense  original.  No  other  man  had  ever 
spoken  after  this  fashion  either  in  Palestine  or  out 
of  it.  No  language  like  this  was  ever  heard  in  India 
or  anywhere  else.  There  is  nothing  even  resembling 
this  in  the  greatest  of  the  Hebrew  poets  or  prophets. 
It  is  when  Jesus  speaks  of  himself  that  we  catch  a 
note  original  in  the  music  of  our  world.  When  you 
hear  some  one  challenging  the  originality  of  Jesus 
and  talking  about  the  parallel  passages  to  be  found 
in  the  rabbinical  writers,  ask  for  a  few  parallel 
passages  corresponding  to  the  paragraphs  in  the 
Gospels  in  which  Jesus  declares  what  he  is. 

John,  who  knew  him  best,  heard  him  saying, 
"Behold  I  make  all  things  new."  He  could  say 
this  because  he  was  new  himself.  Not  having  our 
infirmities  and  fears,  our  frailties  and  our  sins,  his 
eyes  see  things  as  ours  do  not  see  them,  and  his  heart 
has  feelings  which  we  but  dimly  understand.  He 
says,  "Come  unto  me  and  I  will  make  all  things 
new!"  He  does  it  by  giving  us  a  changed  attitude 
to  life,  by  teaching  us  how  to  shift  the  emphasis  from 
words   unimportant   to   words   important,   and   by 


HIS  ORIGINALITY  103 

showing  us  the  insignificance  of  show  and  form 
compared  with  the  quahties  of  a  loving  heart,  by 
taking  away  our  fears  which  stand  round  us  Hke 
grim  Kings  of  Night,  and  substituting  in  their  places 
the  angels  of  Faith  and  Hope,  by  striking  off  our 
fetters  and  bringing  us  into  the  light  and  liberty 
which  belong  to  the  sons  of  God.  It  is  an  original 
work,  and  only  he  can  do  it.  He  did  it  for  Paul. 
Paul  was  a  scholar  and  was  familiar  with  those 
wonderful  rabbinical  writings  in  which  certain 
modern  scholars  find  such  stores  of  treasures.  But 
for  some  reason  these  wonderful  writings  even  when 
taught  by  the  greatest  of  rabbis  did  not  reach  the 
core  of  Paul's  need,  and  he  kept  on  crying,  "O 
wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  from 
the  body  of  this  death?"  And  then  one  day  he 
met  Jesus,  and  behold,  all  things  became  new. 
From  that  day  to  the  day  of  his  death  Paul  urged 
men  to  put  off  the  old  man  and  to  put  on  the  new 
man,  which  after  God  is  created  in  righteousness 
and  true  holiness. 

It  may  be  that  for  some  of  you  life  has  grown  irk- 
some and  the  world  drab  and  commonplace.  Life 
has  lost  its  sparkle  and  its  zest  and  the  world  is 
no  longer  to  you  what  Charles  Lamb  said  it  was  to 
him,  *'a  very  pretty  place."  The  days  are  thread- 
bare and  everything  has  lost  its  bloom.  What 
will  you  do?  This  is  the  wise  thing  to  do:  Go  to 
Jesus  and  give  yourself  afresh  to  him.  Sink  your 
life  deeper  into  his  life  and  catch  his  ways  of  seeing 


104  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

things  and  serving  God  Take  his  standpoint, 
assume  his  attitude,  catch  his  emphasis,  drink  in 
the  accent  of  his  voice,  and  undoubtedly  he  will  do 
for  you  what  he  did  for  Saul  of  Tarsus,  and  what  he 
has  done  and  is  doing  still  for  many,  —  he  will  make 
all  things  new.  He  unifies  human  life  and  simplifies 
it  and  elevates  it  and  transforms  it  and  transfigures 
it,  all  because  he  is  the  Master  and  the  Saviour  of 
the  heart.  "If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new 
creature:  old  things  are  passed  away:  behold  all 
things  are  become  new." 


IX 

THE  NARROWNESS  OF   JESUS 


IX 

THE  NARROWNESS  OF  JESUS 

"Narrow  is  the  way." 

—  Matthew  vii  :  14. 

Let  us  think  about  the  narrowness  of  Jesus.  I 
know  it  is  a  disparaging  word  in  our  modern  speech 
and  damaging  to  a  person's  reputation.  We  often 
hear  it  used  in  a  sinister  and  condemning  sense,  we 
sometimes  use  it  so  ourselves.  We  say,  "Oh,  yes, 
he  is  narrow,"  meaning  that  one  side  of  his  nature 
has  been  blighted,  blasted.  His  mind  is  not  full 
orbed.  His  heart  is  not  full  grown.  He  is  a  dwarfed 
and  stunted  man,  cramped  by  a  defective  education 
or  squeezed  out  of  shape  by  a  narrowing  environ- 
ment. In  no  such  sense  as  this  was  the  man  of 
Galilee  narrow.  But  what  word  will  better  express 
one  of  the  conspicuous  traits  of  Jesus  than  just  this 
word  "narrowness"?  He  set  definite  boundaries 
for  himself,  he  shut  himself  up  within  contracted 
limits;  in  this  sense  he  was  narrow. 

How  narrow  was  the  circle  inside  of  which  he  did 
all  his  work  !  He  lived  his  life  in  Palestine,  a  little 
country  no  larger  than  Connecticut.  It  was  not  a 
prominent  country  either,  but  only  a  little  province 
tributary  to  mighty  Rome.    It  cut  no  figure  in  the 

107 


Io8  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

eye  of  the  world,  and  the  lords  and  ladies  of  the 
world's  capitals  knew  little  of  it  and  cared  less.  It 
was  an  obscure  and  rural  country,  small  in  territory 
and  insignificant  in  prestige,  and  yet  the  Prince  of 
Glory  confined  himself  to  this  little  corner  of  the 
earth.  He  might  have  traveled  across  the  world  as 
many  an  illustrious  teacher  had  done  before  his  day. 
He  might  have  taught  in  Athens  and  lifted  up  his 
voice  in  the  streets  of  the  Eternal  City.  He  might 
have  given  his  message  to  a  wide  circle  of  men  whose 
influence  covered  many  lands ;  but  he  rather  chose 
to  stay  at  home,  to  give  his  time  to  the  cities  of 
Galilee,  to  pour  out  his  strength  on  the  villages  of 
Judea.  For  thirty  years  he  remained  in  the  dingy 
obscurity  of  a  carpenter's  shop,  and  the  country 
upon  which  he  poured  out  the  full  wealth  of  his 
brain  and  heart  was  only  a  carpenter's  shop  among 
the  palaces  of  the  earth. 

If  his  field  was  contracted,  so  also  was  the  character 
of  his  work.  He  only  tried  to  do  one  thing.  There 
were  a  thousand  good  things  which  a  good  man  in 
Palestine  might  have  done,  but  he  left  nine  hundred 
and  ninety-nine  of  them  unattempted  and  confined 
himself  to  the  one  thing  which  he  believed  his  Heav- 
enly Father  had  given  him  to  do.  Men  did  not 
understand  such  narrowness.  They  were  always 
urging  him  to  swing  into  a  wider  orbit  and  do 
something  which  would  create  a  greater  stir.  A 
man  one  day  interrupted  him  while  he  was  speaking, 
saying,  "Make  my  brother  divide  the  inheritance 


HIS  NARROWNESS  109 

with  me!"  But  his  reply  was,  "That  lies  outside 
my  province  —  come  and  listen  to  me  and  I  will 
do  for  you  the  service  which  God  has  appointed 
me  to  do."  It  was  a  noble  piece  of  work  which  this 
interrupter  asked  the  prophet  of  Nazareth  to  per- 
form. An  injustice  had  been  perpetrated,  and  what 
is  nobler  in  this  world  than  the  redressing  of  a  wrong? 
Wrongs  ought  to  be  righted  and  injustices  ought  to 
give  way  to  justice.  It  was  a  righteous  piece  of 
work  which  the  man  wanted  to  have  done,  but  it 
was  not  Christ's  work,  and  therefore  he  would  not 
do  it.  No  one  man  can  do  everything,  no  one  man 
should  attempt  everything.  There  are  a  thousand 
things  which  need  to  be  done  and  yet  which  no  man 
however  industrious  and  noble  can  perform.  Jesus 
set  limits  to  his  activity,  and  beyond  those  limits  no 
man  ever  persuaded  him  to  go.  One  day  his  broth- 
ers wanted  him  to  go  to  Jerusalem  and  make  an 
impression  on  the  big  men  there,  but  he  refused  to 
listen  to  their  exhortation,  telling  them  that  they 
might  go  any  time  they  chose,  but  that  it  was  different 
with  him.  He  could  not  go  until  it  was  time  for 
him  to  go,  until  his  work  compelled  him  to  go.  He 
could  not  go  until  his  hour  had  come.  When  the 
hour  arrived  he  set  his  face  steadfastly  to  go  to  Jeru- 
salem. All  along  the  way  men  tried  to  divert  him, 
but  he  could  not  be  diverted,  to  Jerusalem  he  must  go. 
He  had  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with  and  he  was 
pressed  in  on  both  sides  and  there  was  no  relief 
imtil  his  work  had  been  accomplished.    He  always 


pT 


1 10  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

speaks  like  a  man  whose  feet  are  on  a  narrow  path. 
Men  all  around  him  have  the  enjoyment  of  large 
liberty.  They  wander  hither  and  thither,  going 
whithersoever  they  wish,  but  it  was  not  so  with  him. 
He  could  not  dissipate  his  energy,  he  could  not  waste 
a  single  hour.  It  was  always,  "I  must,"  "I  must," 
"I  must."  There  were  broad  roads  on  his  right 
and  left,  and  along  these  roads  thousands  of  his 
countrymen  were  travelling,  but  he  could  not  go 
with  them.  It  was  for  him  to  walk  along  the  narrow 
path,  for  this  alone  led  to  the  glorious  life  which 
was  to  cheer  and  save  the  world.  When  he  talks 
to  men  about  the  two  ways,  one  of  them  narrow  and 
the  other  one  broad,  he  is  speaking  out  of  his  own 
experience;  and  when  he  urges  men  to  choose  the 
narrow  one  in  preference  to  the  one  which  is  broad, 
he  is  only  saying,  "Follow  me!" 

In  the  realm  of  the  intellect  he  chose  the  way 
which  was  narrow.  There  is  a  feeling  now  preva- 
lent that  it  is  unwise  for  a  man  to  confine  himself 
to  any  one  religion  or  any  one  particular  statement 
of  belief.  It  is  better  —  so  men  say  —  not  to  pin 
your  faith  to  the  sleeve  of  any  one  idea  or  truth,  but 
hold  yourself  in  readiness  to  accept  every  idea  which 
may  come  your  way.  Keep  the  windows  and  doors 
of  your  mind  wide  open  and  let  everything  blow 
through  which  the  winds  may  be  able  to  catch  up, 
but  do  not  settle  down  upon  any  definite  concep- 
tions of  God  or  the  soul,  of  duty  or  destiny,  because 
in  so  doing  you  narrow  yourself  and  may  ultimately 


HIS  NARROWNESS  HI 

degenerate  into  a  bigot.  With  this  sort  of  philosophy 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  no  sympathy.  To  him  cer- 
tain conceptions  of  God  were  true  and  others  were 
false,  certain  estimates  of  man  were  correct  and 
others  erroneous,  certain  standards  of  duty  were 
uplifting  and  others  degrading,  and  with  all  his 
mind  and  soul  and  strength  he  clung  to  the  true 
and  combated  the  false.  He  never  shrank  from 
holding  clean-cut  opinions  and  from  expressing 
them  with  vigor  and  emphasis.  He  was  not  afraid 
of  being  called  intolerant  or  a  bigot.  He  made  a 
distinction  between  falsehood  and  truth,  and  was 
not  ashamed  to  stamp  upon  the  former  and  proclaim 
boldly  the  latter.  Errors  he  struck  no  matter  who 
held  them,  and  hallucinations  he  repudiated  no 
matter  by  how  many  accepted.  In  many  a  modern 
circle  he  would  have  been  counted  a  narrow  man, 
for  he  made  no  compromises,  and  he  would  not 
bend,  and  he  maintained  with  unflinching  per- 
sistency the  things  which  his  heart  knew  to  be  true 
and  good.  If  to  be  dogmatic  is  to  be  positive,  then 
he  was  the  most  dogmatic  teacher  who  ever  brought 
men  to  his  feet.  He  swept  other  leaders  and  teach- 
ers out  of  the  way  with  gorgeous  sweeps  of  scorn. 
"Other  men,"  he  said,  "have  taught  you  this  and 
that,  but  I  say  unto  you."  And  when  his  hearers, 
amazed  by  the  boldness  of  his  speech,  lifted  their 
eyes,  they  saw  that  he  had  placed  himself  above 
even  Moses  and  the  prophets.  He  would  not  allow 
his  followers  to  roam  at  their  will  through  the  realms 


112  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

of  thought,  accepting  everything  or  nothing  at  their 
own  whim  or  fancy ;  but  he  taught  them  day  after 
day  certain  definite,  and  positive  conceptions  and 
principles  to  which  they  must  cling  or  else  lose  their 
souls.  He  came  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth,  and 
for  that  reason  he  was  not  broad  enough  to  give  a 
place  in  his  heart  to  falsehood. 

This  same  narrowness  comes  out  again  in  the 
limited  range  of  his  approbations.  There  were 
some  things  he  could  praise  and  there  were  other 
things  he  was  obliged  to  condemn.  There  were 
some  men  he  could  eulogize,  and  there  were  other 
men  fit  for  nothing  but  burning  condemnation.  He 
did  not  wear  a  universal  smile.  He  did  not  group 
men  together  as  though  they  were  all  alike.  He 
made  distinctions,  and  he  taught  other  men  to  make 
them  too.  There  is  a  weak  and  sentimental  way  of 
lumping  men  together  and  trying  to  make  it  appear 
that  men  are  all  substantially  alike  and  that  one  is 
not  so  much  better  after  all  than  another.  Jesus' 
estimate  was  the  product  of  severe  discrimination. 
He  had  eyes  which  saw  through  the  exterior  of 
men's  hearts,  and  he  judged  them  with  a  fearless- 
ness which  made  them  crouch  in  terror.  The  gang 
of  thieves  who  carried  on  their  business  in  the 
temple  were  driven  out  in  bewilderment  and  con- 
sternation. To  some  of  the  most  influential  men 
of  Jerusalem  he  said,  "You  are  fools  and  blind 
men,  you  are  serpents,  you  are  vipers!"  Between 
some  men  and  other  men  there  was  a  great  gulf 


HIS  NARROWNESS  113 

fixed.  He  did  not  minimize  the  heinousness  of  sin 
by  treating  all  men  alike.  It  makes  no  difference 
to  some  of  us  whether  men  are  honest  or  not,  or 
whether  they  live  filthy  lives  or  not ;  but  it  made  a 
difference  to  Jesus.  No  mean  and  contemptible 
scoundrel  ever  felt  in  Jesus'  presence  like  holding 
up  his  head.  He  was  so  narrow  in  his  judgments 
he  refused  to  let  bad  men  feel  that  they  were  good. 
In  all  his  judgments  on  the  lives  and  homes  of  men 
he  pursued  the  narrow  way. 

It  is  in  his  habit  of  drawing  distinctions  and 
setting  boundaries  that  we  are  to  find  the  cause  of 
many  things  which  might  otherwise  remain  inex- 
plicable. One  of  the  notes  of  Jesus'  life  was  joy. 
He  was  a  man  acquainted  with  grief,  and  yet  his 
joy  was  without  measure.  It  was  one  of  the  things 
he  had  so  much  of  that  he  could  bequeath  it  to  his 
disciples.  Could  he  have  been  happy  had  he  not 
walked  within  narrow  limits?  What  period  in  any 
man's  life  is  so  wretched  as  that  which  lies  in  the 
later  teens  or  early  twenties  in  which  he  does  not 
know  what  he  is  going  to  do  ?  The  big  wide  world 
lies  stretched  out  before  him  with  uncounted  possi- 
bilities, and  the  young  man  full  of  vigor  and  ambi- 
tion, capable  of  doing  a  hundred  different  things,  is 
wretched.  There  are  a  hundred  doors  which  he 
can  open,  but  he  does  not  know  which  one  to  try. 
There  are  a  hundred  fields  in  which  he  can  expend 
his  strength,  but  he  cannot  decide  which  field  to 
enter.    There  are  a  hundred  enterprises  he  feels 


114  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

sure  he  could  lead  to  victory,  but  he  cannot  decide 
which  one  is  most  worthy  of  his  leadership.  And 
of  all  mortals  such  a  youth  is  most  miserable.  No 
man  can  be  happy  with  an  entire  world  to  roam 
over.  It  is  only  when  a  man  picks  out  some  par- 
ticular little  sphere  and  says,  *' Inside  of  this  I  pur- 
pose to  work,"  that  real  life  begins  and  his  heart 
learns  the  art  of  singing.  So  long  as  the  world ^s 
work  lies  in  a  mountain  mass,  there  is  only  depres- 
sion and  hopelessness ;  it  is  when  a  man  picks  up  in 
his  hand  a  definite,  tiny  task  and  says,  "This  is  the 
thing  to  which  I  shall  devote  my  life,"  that  the 
shadows  vanish  and  life  becomes  worth  living.  It  is 
the  narrow  path  that  leads  to  life.  Jesus'  work  was 
definite.  At  twelve  he  knew  the  business  to  which 
he  must  give  himself.  There  never  was  a  day  on 
which  he  allowed  himself  to  be  inveigled  into  doing 
something  else.  Right  here  is  where  we  are  prone 
to  blunder,  and  it  is  at  this  point  that  we  should 
look  for  the  root  cause  of  much  of  the  disquiet  in 
our  souls.  We  start  out  to  do  a  certain  work  and 
immediately  people  begin  to  say:  "Why  don't  you 
do  this?"  "Come  and  do  this!"  and  before  we 
are  aware  of  our  folly  we  have  dissipated  our  energy 
in  trying  to  do  things  which  God  never  intended  us 
to  attempt.  It  is  here  that  we  blunder  in  our  be- 
nevolences. We  try  to  give  to  many  causes,  and  the 
result  is  we  have  little  joy  as  the  result  of  our  giving. 
It  is  no  man's  duty  to  contribute  to  every  good 
cause  that  passes  his  way,  and  it  is  only  when  we 


HIS  NARROWNESS  115 

draw  a  circle  around  our  beneficence  that  we  be- 
come what  God  likes  to  see  —  a  cheerful  giver.  If 
you  want  to  see  a  man  who  sings  at  his  work,  look 
for  him  inside  of  a  narrow  circle. 

Not  only  was  Jesus  joyful,  but  he  was  mighty. 
He  made  an  impression  because  he  stayed  in  one 
place,  and  hit  the  same  nail  on  the  head  until  it 
was  driven  completely  in.  Had  he  wandered  over 
the  earth  speaking  his  parables,  they  would  have 
fallen  into  more  ears  but  would  have  moulded  fewer 
hearts.  By  staying  in  Palestine  and  keeping  his 
heart  close  to  a  few  chosen  hearts,  he  became  in- 
creasingly influential  so  that  the  authorities  were 
frightened,  fearing  that  he  might  overturn  the  nation. 
The  men  who  were  the  nearest  to  him  became  so 
passionately  in  love  with  him  that  they  were  ready 
to  die  for  him.  He  made  himself  thus  mighty  by 
limiting  himself.  It  is  with  men  as  it  is  with  rivers : 
a  river  becomes  a  river  only  by  the  assistance  of 
its  banks.  The  difference  between  a  river  and  a 
swamp  is  that  a  river  has  banks  and  a  swamp  has 
none.  Take  away  its  banks  and  the  river  becomes 
a  swamp.  Many  a  river  becomes  mightier  and 
more  majestic  because  the  mountains  press  in  upon 
it.  Left  to  sprawl  out  over  the  plains  it  had  become 
shallow,  muddy,  feeble;  but  when  the  mountains 
pressed  in  upon  it,  narrowing  its  channel  and  crowd- 
ing the  waters  in  upon  themselves,  the  river  took  on 
a  new  depth  and  strength  of  current,  girding  itself  as 
it  were  to  turn  the  wheels  of  mighty  mills  and  to 


Il6  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

carry  the  ships  of  commerce  to  the  sea.  "Thou 
hast  enlarged  me  when  I  was  in  distress,"  the  He- 
brew poet  cries,  and  many  a  man  can  say  the  same. 
It  is  when  our  life  by  some  sorrow  or  calamity  or 
fresh  responsibilities  is  compressed  within  a  nar- 
rower channel  that  it  takes  on  interior  richness  and 
gains  a  significance  which  it  never  had  before. 

By  limiting  himself  our  Lord  came  off  conqueror. 
He  succeeded.  What  is  it  to  succeed?  It  is  to  do 
the  thing  for  which  we  were  created.  The  most 
galling  of  all  experiences  is  the  failure  to  do  that 
which  is  most  worth  while.  Jesus  attempted  to  do 
one  thing  only,  and  that  was  to  perform  the  work 
which  his  Father  had  given  him  to  do.  At  the  end 
of  his  life  he  could  look  into  his  Father's  face  and 
say,  "I  have  finished  the  work  which  thou  gavest 
me  to  do."  It  was  indeed  time  that  the  Father 
should  glorify  the  Son !  Jesus'  life  on  earth  covered 
only  thirty-three  brief  years,  and  yet  he  did  the 
greatest  piece  of  work  ever  accomplished  on  the 
earth.  It  is  wonderful  what  a  stupendous  task  can 
be  accomplished  in  a  little  time  if  a  man  is  only 
willing  to  keep  at  it.  We  mourn  unwisely  when  we 
mourn  disconsolately  over  lives  that  seem  to  be  cut 
off  at  noon.  Let  a  man  strive  not  to  live  long  but 
to  do  his  work,  and  if  he  does  it  why  should  we 
lament  because  he  dies  at  noon? 

We  have  been  touching  upon  a  great  principle,  — 
the  principle  which  lies  at  the  basis  of  all  the  fine 
arts.    The  arts  which  are  called  fine  become  fine 


HIS  NARROWNESS  117 

because  of  the  narrowness  of  the  limitations  which 
they  impose.  They  all  subject  the  soul  to  a  dis- 
cipline which  is  severe,  and  insist  upon  a  bondage 
which  cannot  be  broken  through.  In  music  there 
is  no  leeway  left  to  the  singer.  He  cannot  sing  a 
little  sharp  or  a  little  fiat  and  still  produce  music. 
In  music  everything  is  precise,  exact,  severe,  and  all 
the  tones  must  take  accurately  the  precise  points 
assigned  them  by  the  master,  else  the  music  does 
not  have  in  it  that  indescribable  power  which  lifts 
and  entrances  the  soul.  The  artist  cannot  dip  his 
brush  as  he  pleases  into  this  color  or  that,  careless 
as  to  how  much  of  this  or  how  little  of  that  he 
spreads  on  the  canvas.  He  is  held  in  the  grip  of 
laws  which  he  cannot  violate  even  a  little  without 
marring  the  picture.  It  is  the  narrow  way  on  which 
artists  must  forever  walk.  Why  is  it  so  much  more 
difficult  to  write  poetry  than  prose?  It  is  because 
poetry  subjects  the  soul  to  a  severer  bondage.  The 
poet  must  submit  to  a  discipline  of  which  the  prose 
writer  knows  nothing.  The  rules  of  accent  and 
rhythm  and  melody  are  inexorable  and  only  genius 
has  strength  enough  to  obey  them  all.  Poets  must 
walk  the  narrow  path.  But  the  most  difficult  of  all 
the  fine  arts  is  the  high  art  of  living  as  God  would 
have  a  mortal  to  live.  Singing  is  easy  and  so  is 
painting  compared  with  this  exacting,  soul-taxing 
art  of  living.  One  cannot  think  anything  he  pleases, 
or  feel  as  he  wants  to,  or  act  as  he  is  inclined  to. 
He  must  walk  the  narrow  path.     Jesus  walked  it, 


Il8  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

and  he  calls  men  everywhere  to  become  his  followers. 
He  is  rigorous  in  his  demands.  He  is  inexorable  in 
his  commands.  He  is  despotic  in  the  limitations 
which  he  imposes.  He  says,  "Come  unto  me!" 
We  ask,  cannot  we  go  to  others?  His  reply  is, 
There  are  no  others.  Come  to  me !  And  when  we 
come  he  says,  "Follow  me !"  We  hesitate  and  ask, 
"Is  this  really  necessary,  can  we  not  choose  an 
easier  way?"  His  reply  is:  "Follow  me."  "If 
you  do  not  take  up  your  cross  and  follow  me,  you 
cannot  be  my  disciple,  and  no  one  comes  to  the 
Father  except  through  me."  He  says,  "Abide  in 
me!"  and  we  demur  and  wonder  if  after  all  it  is 
necessary  to  shut  ourselves  up  in  what  seems  to  be 
so  narrow  and  limited  a  sphere.  But  he  says  to 
us  with  that  strange,  dogmatic,  compelling  accent 
which  stirred  the  hearts  of  the  people  long  ago  in 
Galilee,  "Verily  I  say  unto  you,  unless  you  abide 
in  me,  you  have  no  life  at  all  in  you !"  This,  then, 
is  the  narrowness  of  Jesus.  He  is  narrow  for  a 
purpose.  He  limited  himself,  emptied  himself  of 
his  divine  glory,  was  found  in  the  fashion  of  a  man, 
walked  the  narrow  path  which  led  from  the  carpen- 
ter's shop  to  Golgotha,  all  because  of  his  great  love 
for  us,  and  in  order  that  we  might  each  one  of  us 
have  life  and  have  it  more  abundantly. 


THE  BREADTH  OF   JESUS 


THE   BREADTH   OF   JESUS 

"Preach  the  Gospel  to  the  whole  creation," 

—  Mark  xvi  :  15. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was 
lacking  in  breadth.  He  had  apparently  no  desire  to 
see  the  world,  and  was  content  to  spend  his  life 
in  little  Palestine.  He  walked  a  path  which  was  ,^ 
narrow,  and  refused  to  give  his  approbation  to  men 
and  measures  which  won  the  esteem  and  praise  of 
thousands  of  his  countrymen.  But  there  was  a  pur- 
pose in  this  narrowness,  and  a  reason  for  it.  His 
narrowness  was  a  product  of  his  breadth.  He 
walked  the  narrow  path  because  he  carried  in  his 
heart  the  dream  of  an  empire  which  was  vast.  By 
standing  in  one  place  and  striking  repeatedly  the 
strings  of  the  same  set  of  hearts,  he  started  vibra- 
tions which  have  filled  the  world  with  music.  By 
carefully  tending  the  fire  which  he  had  kindled,  he 
made  it  hot  enough  to  change  the  spiritual  climate 
of  many  lands.  By  saturating  a  little  circle  of 
chosen  followers  with  his  spirit,  he  made  them  capa- 
ble of  carrying  on  their  shoulders  a  lost  race  to  God. 
By  persistently  treading  a  single  path,  he  made  that 
path  so  luminous  that  every  eye  can  see  it ;    by  dis- 


122  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

carding  false  ideas  and  by  opposing  wicked  men,  he 
has  made  it  easier  for  truth  seekers  and  the  soldiers 
of  God  in  each  succeeding  generation  to  fight  a 
good  fight  and  to  win  the  crown.  By  being  faithful 
in  a  few  things,  he  won  the  place  of  Lordship  over 
many  cities ;  and  by  limiting  himself,  and  by  making 
himself  of  no  reputation,  he  founded  a  kingdom 
broad  as  humanity  and  of  which  there  shall  be  no 
end.  If  you  study  the  New  Testament,  you  will  see 
that  this  man  from  the  beginning  carried  the  world 
in  his  eye  and  the  race  on  his  heart.  What  strange 
paradoxes  one  finds  in  the  realm  of  the  soul.  If  you 
would  be  broad,  then  be  narrow.  Jesus  was  nar- 
row because  his  breadth  was  immeasurable. 

It  was  the  breadth  of  Jesus'  ideas  and  sympathies 
which  first  brought  him  into  conflict  with  his  coun- 
trymen. The  Jews  as  a  people  were  proverbially 
narrow  and  bigoted.  They  divided  the  world  into 
two  parts  and  placed  an  almost  impassable  gulf 
between  themselves  and  all  other  races.  Inside  of 
Palestine  people  were  divided  into  classes  by  lines 
which  were  straight  and  unchangeable.  Hearts 
were  narrow,  and  feelings  were  bitter  and  hard. 
Samaria  was  counted  accursed,  and  men  of  Galilee 
on  their  way  to  Jerusalem  crossed  over  the  Jordan 
in  order  that  their  feet  might  not  be  contaminated 
by  treading  the  Samaritan  soil.  The  Jews  were  an 
exclusive  and  haughty  and  aristocratic  race,  con- 
stantly thanking  God  that  they  were  superior  to  all 
other  nations.     But  the  spirit  of  Jesus  was  different. 


HIS  BREADTH  123 

In  his  very  first  sermon  in  Nazareth  he  called  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  in  the  days  of  Elijah,  God  had 
picked  out  a  widow  outside  the  promised  land  for 
special  consideration  and  honor,  and  that  in  the 
days  of  Elisha,  although  there  were  many  lepers  in 
Israel,  God  had  passed  by  them  all,  and  healed  a 
Gentile  leper,  Naaman,  the  Syrian.  It  was  all 
written  down  in  their  Scriptures,  but  the  good  people 
in  Nazareth,  like  many  other  good  people  since  their 
day,  did  not  pay  attention  to  many  things  written 
in  their  own  Scriptures,  and  when  Jesus  began  to 
eulogize  the  widow  of  Sidon  and  the  Syrian  king, 
their  hearts  became  so  hot  within  them  that  they 
broke  up  the  meeting  and  tried  to  mob  the  preacher. 
They  hustled  him  down  through  the  narrow  street 
and  out  along  a  road  which  ran  near  the  brink  of 
a  precipice,  fully  intending  to  crowd  him  over  the 
edge,  but  he  foiled  their  nefarious  intentions  and 
made  his  escape  to  Capernaum.  This  is  really  the 
beginning  of  Jesus'  conflict  with  the  world.  It  is 
worth  while  to  remember  that  the  first  antagonism 
was  occasioned  by  his  effort  to  push  out  men's  horizon. 
The  narrow-headed  villagers  of  Nazareth  were  driven 
to  the  edge  of  murder  by  the  breadth  of  a  mind 
which  went  beyond  them. 

The  amplitude  of  Jesus'  ideas  is  evidenced  by 
their  perennial  freshness  and  applicability  to  all 
kinds  of  men  and  conditions.  How  wonderful  it  is 
that  Jesus'  ideas  are  broad  enough  to  cover  all  the 
nations  and  all  the  centuries.     Many  ideas  shrivel 


124  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

and  dry  up  with  the  lapse  of  time.  Political  ideas 
have  a  strange  fashion  of  passing  away,  and  so  do 
scientific  ideas.  One  century  has  no  interest  in  the 
political  teachings  of  the  century  which  preceded  it, 
and  no  generation  is  willing  to  accept  the  science 
of  the  generation  that  went  before  it.  But  the  ideas 
of  Jesus  have  such  breadth  that  they  can  cover  the 
world  and  the  ages,  and  although  nineteen  cen- 
turies have  swept  away  almost  everything  which 
was  believed  and  taught  in  Jesus'  day,  his  ideas  are 
still  alive  and  the  very  words  in  which  they  are  ex- 
pressed seem  destined  to  outlive  the  stars.  This  is 
indeed  strange,  that  we  people  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury should  be  a  part  of  the  Nazareth  congregation, 
listening  to  the  very  ideas  which  interested  Jews 
nearly  two  thousand  years  ago,  and  so  broad  are 
these  ideas  and  so  universally  applicable  to  the  de- 
mands of  the  mind  and  the  needs  of  the  heart  that 
each  succeeding  generation  down  to  the  end  of 
time  will  take  its  place  in  the  congregation  of  the 
prophet  of  Nazareth,  so  that  if  one  could  see  the 
whole  history  unrolled  before  him,  he  would  dis- 
cover the  countless  millions  of  humanity  gathered 
round  a  single  teacher,  and  that  teacher  none  other 
than  the  teacher  whom  the  people  of  Nazareth  tried 
to  kill.  Broad,  indeed,  must  be  the  ideas  which  can 
cover  all  peoples  and  kindreds  and  tongues  through- 
out all  the  eras  of  their  existence. 

And  his  heart  was  as  far-reaching  as  his  brain. 
The  social  sympathies  of  Jesus  were  to  his  country- 


HIS  BREADTH  125 

men  a  surprise  and  a  scandal.  He  felt  with  every- 
body. He  seemed  to  be  ignorant  of  the  proprieties 
and  the  etiquette  of  well-bred  people.  His  heart 
went  out  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  in  a 
way  which  was  reckless  and  shocking.  There  were 
men  in  Palestine  who  were  under  the  ban  of  public 
opinion.  Every  right-thinking  man  despised  them. 
They  were  treated  like  the  dogs  in  the  street.  They 
had  feelings,  but  nobody  felt  with  them.  Every 
door  of  society  was  slammed  in  their  face.  These 
men  were  known  as  Publicans.  Jesus'  heart  went 
out  to  these  men.  He  talked  with  them,  ate  with 
them.  Not  content  with  this  he  took  one  of  them 
into  the  inner  circle  of  his  intimate  friends  and 
allowed  him  to  go  out  and  teach  and  work  in  his 
name.  Even  in  Jericho,  the  narrowest  of  all 
Judean  cities,  because  for  centuries  it  had  been  the 
home  of  the  priests,  this  big-hearted  prophet  took 
dinner  with  one  of  the  most  notorious  of  all  the 
Publicans,  to  the  consternation  of  the  best  people 
in  the  land.  And  not  content  with  thus  showing 
the  breadth  of  his  sympathies  by  his  deeds,  he 
painted  a  picture  which  hangs  in  the  great  art 
gallery  of  the  world.  Its  colors  will  never  fade,  and 
no  thief  can  ever  destroy  it.  It  is  the  picture  en- 
titled, "The  Pharisee  and  the  Publican."  The 
lesson  of  the  picture  is  that  God's  heart  is  more 
responsive  to  a  penitent  Publican  than  to  a  vain- 
glorious Pharisee.  There  was  only  one  set  of  men 
lower  than  the  Publicans,  and  they  were  the  Samari- 


126  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

tans.  Every  man's  hand  was  against  them.  Every 
heart  was  hard  as  flint  toward  them.  And  Jesus 
befriended  them.  He  felt  with  them.  He  gave 
rehgious  instruction  even  to  a  Samaritan  woman, 
and  healed  even  a  Samaritan  leper.  So  wide  was 
his  heart  that  there  was  room  in  it  for  a  Samaritan 
outcast  whose  flesh  was  rotten.  And  as  if  deter- 
mined that  all  the  world  down  to  the  end  of  time 
should  know  the  width  of  his  sympathies,  he  painted 
a  picture  which  men  will  look  at  as  long  as  they  have 
eyes  to  see  and  hearts  to  feel,  and  the  name  of  the 
picture  is,  "The  Good  Samaritan."  What  havoc 
this  man  made  with  the  traditions  and  customs  of 
his  countrymen  1  The  land  was  crossed  in  all  direc- 
tions by  dividing  walls  and  estranging  barriers,  con- 
structed by  narrow-hearted  teachers,  and  after  Jesus 
had  walked  through  the  land,  lo,  the  barriers  and 
walls  were  a  mass  of  ruins.  His  great,  loving  heart 
burst  asunder  all  the  regulations  and  restrictions. 
There  was  room  in  his  soul  for  everybody. 

(^  It  is  in  the  width  of  his  love  that  men  have  found 
most  to  wonder  at.  His  love  was  unbounded.  It 
was  an  ocean  without  a  shore.  He  was  not  willing 
that  his  followers  should  set  boundaries  to  their 
love,  because  all  such  barriers  were  contrary  to  his 
habit  and  foreign  to  his  spirit.  When  Peter  asked 
him  how  often  a  man  ought  to  forgive  another  who 
has  trespassed  against  him,  and  suggested  seven  as 
X  a  number  almost  grotesquely  large,  being  more  than 
(twice  the  number  suggested  by  the  most  liberal  of 


HIS  BREADTH  127 

the  rabbis,  Jesus  said:  "Do  not  set  any  limits  at 
all.  There  are  no  boundaries  in  the  realm  of  love. 
You  cannot  calculate  in  the  empire  of  the  heart. 
Mathematics  is  foreign  to  affection."  Whenever  he 
spoke  about  love  he  said  something  which  amazed 
his  hearers.  One  day  he  said,  "Love  your  enemies; 
bless  them  that  curse  you;  do  good  to  them  that 
hate  you;  and  pray  for  them  that  despitefully  use 
you  and  persecute  you."  And  when  men  stood 
aghast  showing  by  their  faces  that  only  God  could  be 
expected  to  have  a  love  so  broad,  Jesus  went  on  to 
add  that  God  is  to  be  the  model  of  all  men  who 
want  to  live  right,  and  that  one's  constant  aim  shall 
be  to  bring  his  life  up  to  God's  style,  and  to  imitate 
Him  in  the  unbounded  reach  of  His  good  will.  Nor 
was  this  simply  exhortation.  It  was  not  only  preach- 
ing but  practice.  Jesus  taught  forgiveness  because 
he  knew  the  blessedness  of  a  forgiving  heart.  He 
himself  was  forgiving  always.  He  had  no  grudges, 
no  retaliations,  no  revenges.  Some  men  forgive  be- 
cause they  have  not  eyes  to  see  the  heinousness  of 
wrong,  and  not  heart  to  feel  its  devilishness.  Jesus 
saw  the  loathsomeness  of  vice,  knew  the  odiousness 
of  vulgarity,  felt  the  hideousness  of  sin.  His  heart 
was  so  sensitive  that  it  blazed  against  evil,  but 
while  he  loathed  the  sin  he  could  love  the  sinner, 
and  so  when  his  executioners  nailed  his  hands  and 
feet  to  the  cross,  the  only  word  which  escaped  his 
lips  was,  "Forgive,"  "Forgive,"  "Forgive."  That 
great  word  contained  the  blood  of  his  heart. 


128  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

It  is  this  abounding  love  which  accounts  for  the 
immeasurable  reaches  of  his  hope.  He  was  the 
most  hopeful  of  all  teachers.  No  matter  how  dull 
the  pupil,  he  still  believed  that  he  would  learn. 
Men  had  grown  cynical  and  pessimistic  in  Palestine 
nineteen  centuries  ago.  They  had  lost  confidence 
in  humanity,  and  had  settled  down  in  the  convic- 
tion that  for  many  mortals  we  can  expect  nothing 
but  perdition.  To  the  religious  teachers  of  Pales- 
tine certain  classes  were  beyond  redemption.  They 
were  lost  and  were  labeled  "Lost."  It  was  known 
throughout  the  city  that  to  certain  sinners  no  ex- 
hortation could  be  directed,  no  promise  could  be 
offered.  The  Jewish  church  turned  its  back  upon 
all  such,  and  confined  itself  to  men  who  could  be 
saved.  But  Jesus,  because  he  loved,  also  hoped, 
[is  hope  was  as  immeasurable  as  his  love.  He  did 
not  reject  the  refuse  of  society.  He  saw  promise 
even  in  the  scum.  The  dregs  of  society  are  not  to 
be  carelessly  tossed  away.  There  is  a  chance  for 
the  man  who  is  supposed  to  have  no  chance,  there 
is  hope  for  the  man  whom  men  have  doomed  to 
p53ition.  You  cannot  tell  what  is  in  a  man  by 
what  he  says  or  even  by  what  he  does.  There  is 
more  in  him  than  comes  out  in  his  words  and  his 
deeds.  And  so  Jesus  proceeded  to  show  that  the 
so-called  lost  men  were  not  lost,  and  that  even  in 
blasted  Samaria  the  fields  were  white  to  the  har- 
vest. He  did  not  hesitate  to  direct  his  most  earnest 
exhortations  to  men  who  were  supposed  to  have  no 


HIS  BREADTH  129 

heart,  and  even  when  the  world's  cruelty  was  cutting 
into  him  like  steel,  he  said,  "I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me."  So  boundless  was  his 
confidence  in  man,  that  he  set  no  limits  to  his 
expectations. 

He  could  not  accomplish  the  redemption  of  the 
world  in  the  few  years  of  his  earthly  career,  but  he 
would  form  a  society,  baptize  it  with  his  spirit,  and 
through  this  society  God  from  His  throne  in  heaven 
would  redeem  the  race.  The  formation  of  this 
Christian  society  is  one  of  the  great  events  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  character  of  the  men  built 
into  it  has  a  wealth  of  suggestion.  If  you  were 
going  to  form  an  organization  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  out  your  ideas  after  your  death,  what  kind 
of  men  would  you  select  ?  You  would  —  I  suspect 
—  choose  men  like  yourself,  of  your  own  social 
circle,  and  of  your  own  type  of  mind,  and  of  your 
own  general  temperament  and  make-up,  and  in 
so  doing  you  would  have  a  society  which  would 
come  to  nothing.  Mark  the  method  of  Jesus.  He 
chooses  men  of  all  grades  and  from  all  classes. 
No  man  in  the  group  is  like  any  of  his  comrades, 
and  no  one  of  them  is  like  Jesus.  There  is  a  mer- 
curial man,  Peter;  and  there  is  a  lymphatic  man, 
Thomas.  There  is  a  fire-eater,  Simon  Zelotes,  a 
member  of  the  fieriest  political  party  in  Palestine; 
and  there  is  the  prosaic  and  slow-going  Philip. 
There  is  a  man  of  good  family  and  spotless  reputa- 
tion, John;    and  by  his  side  is  a  man  with  a  tar- 


130  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

nished  name,  Matthew,  the  Publican.  All  tempera- 
ments are  here,  and  all  combinations  of  mental 
faculties,  and  here  are  representatives  from  various 
classes  and  divers  social  strata.  In  doing  a  wide 
work  you  must  have  a  broad  instrument,  and  the 
Christian  church  as  it  left  the  hands  of  Jesus  em- 
braced in  its  membership  the  types  of  men  which 
would  be  able  to  open  all  the  doors.  Never  does 
the  breadth  of  the  mind  of  Jesus  come  out  with 
more  startling  clearness  than  in  the  manner  of  his 
choices  in  the  formation  of  the  society  which  was 
to  bear  his  name  and  carry  on  his  work.  It  was  a 
great  work,  the  vastest  which  has  ever  entered  into 
the  heart  of  man.  He  had  constantly  the  ends  of 
the  earth  in  his  eye.  The  narrowness  of  the  petty 
men  who  administered  the  affairs  of  the  Jewish 
church  distressed  him.  "Many,"  he  said,  ** shall 
come  from  the  East  and  the  West  and  from  the 
North  and  the  South  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abra- 
ham and  Isaac  and  Jacob  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.'^ 
At  an  early  stage  he  told  his  apostles  not  to  go 
outside  the  Hmits  of  their  own  people  in  their  work, 
but  this  limitation  of  field  was  only  educational,  and 
with  their  increasing  strength  was  to  pass  forever 
away.  Men  should  stay  in  Jerusalem  long  enough 
to  secure  strength  sufficient  to  grapple  with  the 
problems  of  Judea,  and  they  should  tarry  in  Judea 
until  they  were  capable  of  grappling  with  the  more 
difficult  conditions  of  Samaria,  and  they  should 
work  in  Samaria  until  they  had  acquired  the  en- 


H/S  BREADTH  131 

durance  which  would  enable  them  to  travel  to  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  In  the  earlier  stages  a 
teacher  does  not  communicate  to  the  pupil  his  plans 
for  the  years  which  lie  far  ahead.  Jesus  did  not 
talk  to  his  apostles  about  the  world  and  the  ages  on 
the  day  of  their  baptism  or  even  in  the  upper  cham- 
ber, but  before  he  left  the  earth  he  poured  into  their 
ear  the  great  message  which  had  been  in  his  heart 
from  the  beginning,  and  it  ran  thus,  "Go  preach 
the  Gospel  to  the  whole  creation."  All  national 
boundaries  are  now  obliterated  and  the  horizon 
thrown  round  the  apostles  is  not  less  narrow  than 
the  large  circle  of  the  world.  "Go  disciple  the 
nations."  It  was  in  this  manner  that  he  spoke  to 
them  before  the  cloud  received  him  from  their 
sight,  and  whenever  from  that  day  to  this  the  fol- 
lowers of  Jesus  have  been  closest  to  him,  they  have 
been  found  to  be  dreaming  of  conquests  wide  as  the 
world. 

He  that  hath  seen  this  man  hath  seen  the  Father. 
In  Jesus  of  Nazareth  we  get  a  revelation  of  the 
breadth  of  the  heart  of  the  Eternal.  How  did  it 
happen  that  Jesus  was  so  spacious  in  his  ideas  and 
so  broad  in  his  sympathies  and  so  far-reaching  in 
his  plannings?  It  was  because  God  was  in  him 
revealing  Himself  to  men.  That  is  what  God  al- 
ways is  —  broad  in  His  sympathies,  wonderful  in  His 
expectations,  boundless  in  His  love.  He  so  loved 
the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son  —  and 
this  Son  came  to  earth  and  tasted  death  for  every 


132  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

man  —  and  the  Spirit  whom  He  sent  and  also  the 
bride  who  is  His  church,  they  keep  on  crying  through 
the  centuries:  "Come!  Let  him  that  is  athirst 
come.  Whosoever  will,  let  him  take  the  water  of 
life  freely." 

This,  then,  is  a  message  for  us  all.  No  matter 
who  you  are,  you  have  a  sure  place  in  the  mind 
and  heart  of  God.  No  matter  how  you  have  sinned, 
you  are  inside  the  boundaries  of  His  sympathy.  No 
matter  what  you  have  said  or  felt  or  thought  or 
done,  you  are  still  the  object  of  His  love.  No  matter 
how  often  you  have  disappointed  Him,  He  is  still 
expecting  of  you  better  things.  Whoever  you  are, 
and  wherever  you  are,  and  whatever  you  are,  you 
are  included  in  His  plans.  When  He  laid  down  the 
lines  of  His  vast  scheme  for  humanity,  you  were 
not  overlooked  or  forgotten.  When  He  framed  His 
church,  a  place  inside  of  it  was  assigned  to  you. 
That  place  wil  remain  vacant  until  you  fill  it. 
You  cannot  escape  Him.  His  arms  are  all-embrac- 
ing. The  width  of  His  heart  is  infinite.  His  love 
is  everlasting, 

"I  know  not  where  his  islands  lift 
Their  fronded  palms  in  air; 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  his  love  and  care." 


XI 

JESUS'   TRUST  IN   GOD 


XI 

JESUS'   TRUST   IN   GOD 

"He  trusted  on  God." 

—  Matthew  xxvii  :  43. 

We  are  trying  to  see  Jesus  as  he  was.  It  is  sur- 
prising that  we  do  not  know  him  better  when  his 
image  is  so  vividly  portrayed  for  us  in  the  Gospels. 
The  very  familiarity  of  the  story  has  a  deadening 
effect  upon  the  mind.  We  have  heard  so  much  of 
Jesus  ever  since  the  days  of  childhood,  have  heard 
so  many  teachers  and  preachers  speak  about  him, 
that  the  mind  has  hardened  and  refuses  to  be  im- 
pressed by  him.  Many  of  us  have  had  faulty 
methods  of  Bible  study.  We  have  studied  the  Bible 
piecemeal,  in  scraps  and  patches,  getting  a  knowl- 
edge of  isolated  passages  and  never  putting  together 
the  various  parts  so  as  to  see  Jesus  as  a  man  among 
men.  We  have  caught,  it  may  be,  one  trait  of  his 
lovely  character;  we  have  fixed  our  gaze  upon  one 
bright  particular  star,  and  have  missed  the  sweep 
and  swing  of  the  constellations ;  we  have  picked  up  a 
pebble  now  and  then  and  have  failed  to  take  in  the 
curve  of  the  vast  shore  and  the  swell  and  surge  of 

135 


136  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  sea.     Our  object  in  all  these  studies  is  to  see 
him  as  he  was  seen  by  the  men  of  his  time. 

We  have  already  found  in  him  the  note  of  strength 
and  the  note  of  gladness,  and  now  let  us  get  a  little 
deeper  and  find  out  if  we  can  the  spring  from  which 
strength  and  gladness  flow.  How  does  it  happen 
that  this  man  was  so  masterful  in  every  situation, 
and  how  did  it  come  to  pass  that  he  was  joyful  in 
the  midst  of  so  many  shadows?  The  answer  to 
the  question  lies  written  broad  on  all  the  pages 
of  the  New  Testament.  His  strength  and  gladness 
came  from  his  steadfast  trust  in  God.  If  you  were 
to  ask  me  what  is  deepest  and  most  fundamental  in 
the  character  of  Jesus,  I  should  say,  it  was  his  trust 
in  God.  I  see  not  how  any  one  can  read  the  New 
Testament  without  feeling  that  this  to  him  was  the 
Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  first  and  the  last.  It 
was  the  heaven  above  his  head,  the  earth  beneath 
his  feet,  the  atmosphere  he  daily  breathed,  the 
spirit  in  which  he  was  saturated,  the  music  that  ran 
through  all  his  conversation,  the  inspiration  of  all 
his  life.  Possibly  no  better  testimony  upon  this 
point  can  be  found  in  all  the  Scriptures  than  that 
taken  from  the  lips  of  his  deadliest  foes.  We  have 
already  found  these  enemies  of  Jesus  valuable  wit- 
nesses, and  they  will  not  disappoint  us  here.  When 
he  was  dying  on  the  cross  many  people  laughed  at 
him  and  wagged  their  heads,  saying  derisive  and 
spiteful  things.  Among  these  people,  strange  to 
say,  there  were  members  of  the  Sanhedrim,  chief 


HIS  TRUST 


m 


priests,  scribes  and  leaders  —  they  all  ridiculed  and 
scorned  him,  and  the  climax  of  their  vituperation 
was  this,  ''He  trusted  on  God!'*  No  blacker  jeer 
ever  was  belched  forth  from  the  jaws  of  hell  than 
that.  It  is  incredible  that  human  beings  could  be 
so  diabolical  as  to  sneer  at  a  man  in  the  hour  of 
death ;  but  that  is  what  the  religious  leaders  of  Pal- 
estine did  when  the  Prophet  of  Galilee  was  dying. 
The  dark  and  terrible  sentence  throws  a  blaze  of 
light  upon  the  teaching  and  the  conduct  of  Jesus. 
His  whole  course  of  action  had  made  upon  the 
people  among  whom  he  moved  the  impression  that 
he  trusted  in  God. 

Should  you  ask  me  for  illustrations  of  this  trust, 
I  should  be  embarrassed  not  because  there  are  so 
few  but  because  there  are  so  many.  One  can  dip 
into  the  Gospels  where  he  will  and  find  things  which 
bear  testimony  to  Jesus'  trust  in  God.  When  only 
a  boy  he  said  to  his  mother,  "Wist  ye  not  that  I 
must  be  about  my  Father's  business?"  His  last 
words  upon  the  cross  were,  "Father,  into  thy  hands 
I  commend  my  spirit."  From  that  first  point  to  the 
last  point  the  music  of  his  trust  was  never  broken. 
He  is  everywhere  and  always  a  man  of  prayer.  At 
the  crises  of  his  life  we  find  him  praying.  At  his 
baptism  and  the  transfiguration,  in  the  garden,  on 
the  cross,  he  is  pouring  out  his  soul  to  God.  Before 
every  important  action,  in  the  midst  of  every  diffi- 
cult situation,  at  the  completion  of  every  stage  of 
work,  we  find  him  praying.     It  was  a  common  thing 


138  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

in  Palestine  for  men  to  pray,  but  no  man  had  ever 
prayed  like  this  man,  with  such  simplicity,  with 
such  earnestness,  with  such  boundless  trust.  Men 
gathered  round  him  awestruck  and  said,  ''Master, 
teach  us  how  to  pray."  All  Hebrew  children  were 
taught  to  pray  from  earliest  infancy.  Prayer  was 
an  indispensable  feature  of  Hebrew  piety,  but  men 
who  had  prayed  from  earliest  youth  felt  when  they 
heard  this  man  pray  that  they  had  never  prayed  at 
all.  The  word  which  he  applied  to  God  was  Father. 
Only  occasionally  in  the  long  sweep  of  the  ages  had 
a  soul  here  and  there  ventured  to  apply  to  Deity  a 
name  so  familiar  and  sweet,  but  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
always  thinks  and  speaks  of  God  as  Father.  He 
names  Him  this  in  his  own  prayers,  he  tells  other 
men  that  they  also  may  use  this  name.  To  trust  in 
the  goodness  and  mercy  of  the  good  Father  was  his 
own  intensest  and  fullest  delight;  to  induce  others 
to  trust  in  Him  also  was  his  constant  ambition  and 
endeavor. 

How  much  Jesus  has  to  teach  us  at  this  point. 
It  is  often  supposed  that  it  is  easy  to  believe  in  God. 
The  fact  is,  nothing  is  more  difficult  to  do  at  certain 
times  and  in  certain  circumstances.  It  is  easy,  in- 
deed, to  say  that  one  trusts  in  God,  but  really  to  do 
it  when  justice  seems  dead  and  love  seems  to  have 
vanished,  that  is  difficult  indeed.  Who  can  study 
Nature  without  finding  things  in  it  which  make  it 
difficult  to  believe  in  the  good  Father?  Does  not 
Nature  seem  to  be  cruel?    Does  she  seem  to  have 


HIS  TRUST  139 

any  heart?  Do  not  fire  burn  and  water  drown 
and  volcanoes  cover  cities  without  mercy?  Does 
Nature  not  carry  on  her  vast  operations  with  abso- 
lute indifference  to  the  wishes  or  welfare  of  men? 
All  of  the  great  thinkers  who  have  gazed  into  the 
face  of  Nature  have  been  appalled  by  her  heartless- 
ness  and  her  indifference.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  found 
in  Nature  fresh  evidences  of  God's  love.  Other  men 
noting  how  the  sunshine  falls  upon  the  heads  of  the 
good  and  the  bad  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
God  does  not  know  —  God  does  not  care.  Whereas 
Jesus  looking  on  the  same  phenomenon  sees  in  it 
fresh  evidence  of  the  great  heart  of  the  good  Father. 
The  rain  falls  upon  the  farm  of  the  man  who  blas- 
phemes and  also  upon  the  farm  of  the  man  who 
serves  God,  not  because  God  is  indifferent  to  the 
difference  in  character,  but  because  he  is  so  good 
that  his  mercy  covers  all  of  his  children.  Just  as 
the  earthly  parent  allows  the  disobedient  son  to  sit 
down  at  the  table  with  his  obedient  brothers  and 
sisters,  so  it  is  the  good  God  who  feeds  the  good  and 
the  bad,  the  just  and  the  unjust,  unwilling  to  show 
resentment,  hoping  still  that  every  heart  will  sur- 
render. To  Jesus  Nature  is  a  great  witness,  clothed 
in  light,  bearing  continuous  testimony  to  the  width 
of  the  eternal  mercy. 

But  if  Nature  seems  indifferent  and  cruel,  what 
shall  we  say  of  history  —  the  arena  in  which  has 
been  played  out  the  tragedy  of  human  life?  What 
a  jumble  of  mysteries !    What   a  mass  of  woes ! 


140  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

All  of  the  centuries  groaning  with  agony,  all  of  the 
ages  dripping  with  blood !  Who  can  look  upon  the 
sufferings  of  the  innocent,  or  hear  the  cries  of  the 
oppressed,  or  witness  the  slaughter  of  the  pure  and 
the  good  without  asking  himself:  Does  God  know? 
Does  God  care?  Right  forever  on  the  scaffold, 
wrong  forever  on  the  throne,  —  so  it  seems  to  the 
man  who  reads  history.  Vice  triumphs  over  virtue, 
dishonesty  tramples  upon  honesty,  injustice  lords 
it  over  justice,  hate  defies  and  defeats  love.  This 
happens  not  once  but  ten  thousand  times.  Some 
men  read  the  dark  and  terrible  story  and  give  up 
their  faith  in  God.  Jesus  looks  upon  the  same 
scene  and  gives  to  it  a  different  interpretation.  He 
sees  good  men  come  and  offer  their  services  to  the 
world  only  to  be  rejected  and  repulsed.  One  of 
them  is  stoned,  another  is  beaten,  another  is  killed. 
Their  dead  bodies  are  piled  up  in  sickening  heaps, 
but  to  Jesus  this  is  not  evidence  of  the  indifference 
of  God  —  it  is  the  proof  of  his  long-suffering  patience ; 
it  is  because  he  is  not  willing  that  any  should  be 
lost  that  he  keeps  on  century  after  century,  sending 
into  the  world  prophets  and  apostles,  heroes  and 
saints,  who  shall  proclaim  the  message  of  heaven 
to  bewildered  and  sinful  man. 

But  if  the  processes  of  Nature  and  the  courses  of 
history  make  war  upon  one's  trust  in  God,  much 
more  terrible  is  the  conflict  which  is  often  necessi- 
tated by  one's  own  personal  experience.  Many  a 
man  has  for  years  trusted  in  God  only  to  discover 


HIS  TRUST  141 

when  evil  fortune  came  that  his  trust  was  not  strong 
enough  to  stand  the  shock.  The  very  best  and 
strongest  of  men  when  overtaken  by  misfortune  are 
obhged  to  readjust  their  faith.  For  a  while  they  are 
stupefied  and  dazed,  scarcely  knowing  whither  to 
turn  or  what  to  think.  So  it  was  with  Job.  His 
faith  in  God  was  complete,  so  he  thought ;  but  when 
his  children  were  taken  and  his  fortune  was  swept 
away  and  his  health  vanished,  he  lay  upon  the  ground 
in  his  misery  crying  to  God  in  his  pain,  unable  to 
see  Him  either  on  the  right  hand  or  on  the  left,  either 
behind  or  before.  Many  things  conspire  to  blot 
out  one's  trust  in  God.  Disappointment  may  do  it, 
a  man's  fondest  dream  may  come  to  nothing,  his 
central  ambition  may  fail.  One  disappointment 
after  another  may  come  upon  him  until  he  sinks 
down  vanquished  and  hopeless,  his  torch  extin- 
guished. Persecution  may  break  a  man's  faith  in 
God,  the  inhumanity  of  man  may  turn  sour  the 
juices  of  the  heart ;  the  misunderstandings  and  mis- 
representations of  men,  their  hostility  and  faithless- 
ness, their  contempt  and  their  scorn,  may  render  it 
well-nigh  impossible  to  believe  that  God  rules  the 
world. 

Other  men  are  overcome  by  failure.  Nothing 
to  them  was  so  sweet  as  success.  To  win  suc- 
cess they  give  the  best  of  their  years  and  all  their 
powers,  but  in  spite  of  all  they  can  do  success  does 
not  come.  At  the  end  of  the  day  they  confess  them- 
selves defeated.     In  the  bitterness  of  their  defeat 


142  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

they  cry  out,  *' Where  is  God?"  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
had  all  the  dark  experiences  which  it  is  possible  for 
the  soul  to  have.  He  had  a  work  to  do  to  which  he 
gave  all  the  energy  of  his  brain  and  his  heart.  He 
had  a  dream  which  filled  him  with  enthusiasm,  he 
had  a  message  to  communicate  which  he  was  certain 
would  drive  away  the  gloom  and  the  woe  of  the 
world.  He  went  to  Jerusalem  to  announce  it  — 
the  door  there  was  slammed  in  his  face.  He  an- 
nounced it  in  the  synagogues  of  Galilee,  but  the 
people  there  would  not  receive  it.  He  then  preached 
it  on  the  street  corners  of  the  great  cities,  but  the 
crowds  melted  away  like  snow  banks  in  June. 
There  were  at  last  only  twelve  men  who  stood  by 
him,  and  the  hearts  of  these  were  so  fluctuating  that 
he  said,  **Will  ye  also  go  away?"  To  these  twelve 
men  he  gave  himself  with  passionate  devotion,  pour- 
ing into  their  souls  his  own  very  life.  But  the  bold- 
est of  them  turned  out  a  coward,  and  one  of  the 
most  trusted  of  them  became  a  traitor,  and  when 
the  crisis  in  his  life  came  they  all  forsook  him  and 
fled. 

But  notwithstanding  his  disappointment,  his 
trust  in  God  was  unbroken.  In  the  midst  of  the 
tempest  his  torch  kept  on  burning,  and  he  cried, 
*'Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the  world." 
He  was  persecuted  as  no  other  man  before  his  day 
or  since ;  he  was  maligned,  abused,  execrated.  Men 
called  him  crazy,  others  said  he  had  a  devil.  He  was 
accused  of  blasphemy,  of  treason  —  but  his  heart 


HIS  TRUST  143 

remained  sweet.  Men  buffeted  him  and  abused 
him,  hissing  at  him  their  ingratitude  and  hatred, 
but  he  said,  "The  cup  which  my  Father  has  given 
me  to  drink,  shall  I  not  drink  it?"  And  then 
finally  he  failed.  He  failed  to  do  the  thing  to  which 
he  had  devoted  all  of  his  powers  —  the  thing  for 
which  he  had  steadfastly  prayed.  We  do  not  often 
enough  ponder  this  —  that  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus 
was  a  failure.  We  dwell  upon  the  things  which 
have  happened  since  his  death,  and  dwelling  upon 
these  we  see  that  he  has  succeeded ;  but  it  should 
never  be  forgotten  that  his  life  on  the  day  of  his 
death  was  a  terrible  and  heart-breaking  failure. 
Injustice  was  stronger  than  justice,  unrighteousness 
was  mightier  than  righteousness,  hate  was  stronger 
than  love.  He  had  tried  to  induce  the  world  to 
accept  a  beautiful  truth,  but  the  world  spurned 
him.  In  the  hour  of  his  great  defeat  he  still  looked 
to  God  saying,  "Not  my  will  but  thine  be  done." 
Defeat  itself  could  not  daunt  him  or  make  him  draw 
back.  If  it  is  necessary,  he  said,  that  I  should  be 
sacrificed,  that  I  should  be  trodden  under  the  feet 
of  the  men  who  are  thirsting  for  my  blood,  if  that  is 
the  will  of  the  Infinite  Father,  then  to  that  I  gladly 
submit. 

Never  was  there  a  man  like  this  man.  Other 
great  and  strong  men  have  lived  and  labored,  but 
never  a  man  like  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  John  the 
Baptist  was  mighty,  but  when  the  wind  blew  he 
bent  like  a  reed.     Simon  Peter  was  a  giant,  but  when 


144  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  storm  raged  he  began  to  sink.  But  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  in  the  midst  of  the  wildest  storm  that  ever 
blotted  out  the  heavens  and  caused  the  earth  to 
quake,  looked  steadily  toward  God,  saying,  "Not 
my  will  but  thine  be  done."  Look  down  across  the 
ages  and  see  the  great  men,  how  they  are  swayed 
and  tossed  by  the  winds  and  storms ;  but  there  above 
them  all  there  rises  this  man  of  Galilee  like  some 
majestic  mountain,  his  peaceful  head  outlined  against 
the  blue. 


XII 

THE   BROTHERLINESS   OF   JESUS 


XII 

THE  BROTHERLINESS  OF   JESUS 

"First  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother." 

—  Matthew  v :  24. 

We  are  trying  to  see  Jesus  as  his  contemporaries 
saw  him,  and  desire  to  understand  if  we  can  the 
secret  of  that  fascination  which  he  exerted  over  those 
that  knew  him,  and  to  fathom  if  possible  the  heart 
of  that  magic  by  which  he  has  thrilled  and  held 
nineteen  Christian  centuries.  We  have  found  that 
the  secret  of  his  joy  and  strength  lay  in  his  implicit 
trust  in  God,  and  now  I  wish  to  think  with  you  about 
another  trait  for  which  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  find 
a  satisfying  name.  I  should  say  that  it  is  the  love 
of  Jesus  were  not  the  word  "love"  so  ambiguous  and 
so  liable  to  misinterpretation;  I  should  say  it  was 
the  service  of  Jesus  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  ser- 
vice is  rather  cold  and  has  long  since  been  worn 
into  shreds ;  I  should  say  the  pity  of  Jesus,  but  pity 
is  love  looking  downward,  and  that  does  not  convey 
all  the  truth ;  I  should  call  it  the  humanity  of  Jesus, 
but  that  is  a  vague  and  indefinite  word  that  does 
not  tell  the  story  vividly ;  I  should  say  the  kindness 
of  Jesus,  but  the  word  does  not  carry  with  it  force 

147 


/ 


148  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

enough.  Possibly  we  cannot  do  better  than  to  take 
the  word  "brotherliness,"  for  this  word  contains 
two  elements,  both  of  which  are  essential  if  we 
would  understand  the  kind  of  man  Jesus  was. 
Brotherliness  carries  in  it  not  only  a  sense  of  kinship 
but  likewise  a  disposition  to  render  help.  There  is 
a  relationship  and  likewise  a  helpfulness,  and  both 
of  these  blended  into  one  constitute  the  quality  to 
which  I  invite  your  attention  now. 

That  this  trait  in  Jesus  made  a  profound  impres- 
sion upon  his  contemporaries  is  evidenced  not  only 
by  what  his  friends  have  said  about  him,  but  also 
by  the  criticisms  and  sneers  which  he  drew  from 
his  foes.  It  was  a  common  taunt  of  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees  that  he  was  a  friend  of  Publicans  and 
sinners,  and  when  he  hung  dying  on  the  cross  the 
leading  men  of  the  Jewish  church  gathered  round 
him  saying  with  a  jeer,  "He  saved  others,  he  can- 
not save  himself."  Both  of  these  accusations  are 
as  devilish  as  anything  to  be  found  in  the  literature 
of  the  world,  but  they  are  valuable  to  us  in  this  that 
they  show  conclusively  what  impression  this  man  of 
Galilee  made  upon  the  people  of  his  time.  It  had 
been  his  practice  all  the  way  through  life  to  help 
men.  He  had  been  a  friendly,  brotherly  man  even 
to  the  lowest  and  the  basest  of  society.  That  was 
a  characteristic  which  had  created  a  great  scandal 
and  made  him  hateful  to  many  of  the  respectable 
people  of  his  day.  The  same  trait  is  characterized 
in  a  famous  phrase  written  by  one  of  his  dearest 


HIS  BROTHERLINESS  149 

friends,  "He  went  about  doing  good."  What  more 
beautiful  eulogy  has  ever  been  written  about  a  man 
than  that  ?  With  what  more  lovely  wreath  of  roses 
could  you  cover  a  man's  career?  In  these  three 
sentences  —  *'The  friend  of  Publicans  and  sinners," 
"He  saved  others,  he  cannot  save  himself,"  "He 
went  about  doing  good  "  —  we  get  eloquent  testi- 
mony to  the  fact  that  Jesus  had  a  brotherly  heart. 

Let  us  look  into  this  accusation,  that  he  was  the 
friend  of  Publicans  and  sinners,  and  find  out  what  €> 
it  meant.  The  word  "  publican  "  means  nothing  to 
us  because  we  have  no  class  of  men  corresponding 
to  the  Publicans  of  Palestine.  They  were  the  tax- 
gatherers  of  the  country,  gathering  taxes  for  the 
Roman  government.  They  were  the  hirelings  of 
great  capitalists  into  whose  hands  it  was  necessary 
to  turn  over  a  certain  sum  of  money  each  year,  and 
by  extortion  and  other  dishonest  measures  they  could 
make  as  much  more  money  for  themselves.  To 
every  pious  Hebrew  these  men  were  traitors  to  their 
country,  and  wherever  they  went  they  were  an  object 
of  abhorrence,  hatred,  and  scorn.  Their  money 
was  tainted  money,  it  would  not  be  accepted  in  the 
synagogue.  Their  oath  was  absolutely  worthless, 
they  could  not  be  a  witness  in  any  court  of  law.  If 
a  man  promised  to  do  a  thing  for  a  Publican  under 
oath,  he  was  not  bound  to  keep  his  oath.  They 
were  set  up  in  the  pillory  of  scorn  and  execration, 
and  pelted  with  sneers  by  every  passer-by.  They 
were  looked  upon  as  wild  beasts  in  human  shape. 


I50  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

They  were  outcasts,  vagabonds,  worse  than  the 
homeless  curs  that  roamed  the  streets.  No  decent 
man  would  have  anything  to  do  with  them, 
no  religious  teacher  took  any  interest  in  them. 
They  were  simply  the  offscouring  and  dregs  of 
society. 

But  even  with  these  Jesus  made  friends.  Not 
^?  only  did  he  speak  to  them  but  he  ate  with  them, 
went  into  their  houses  and  sat  down  to  the  table 
with  them  —  the  very  climax  of  audacity !  It  is 
one  thing  to  throw  money  to  depraved  men  as  we 
would  throw  carrots  to  bears  in  a  bear  pit,  it  is 
another  thing  to  eat  with  them.  It  is  one  thing  to 
talk  down  to  bad  men,  giving  them  good  advice, 
and  quite  another  thing  to  associate  with  them.  No 
one  found  fault  with  President  Roosevelt  so  long  as 
he  spoke  to  negroes  in  the  street ;  it  was  when  he  sat 
down  with  a  negro  in  the  White  House  that  the 
South  blazed  with  indignation.  But  this  man  Jesus 
sat  down  and  ate  with  Publicans,  he  crossed  the 
chasm  over  which  no  man  of  his  day  or  generation 
was  willing  to  pass.  By  doing  this  he  lost  his  repu- 
tation. In  the  words  of  an  apostle  he  made  himself 
of  no  reputation,  he  took  his  good  name  and  tore 
it  into  shreds  and  threw  it  away  and  all  because  he 
was  determined  to  be  brotherly.  Notwithstanding 
these  men  were  so  base  he  recognized  in  them  his 
brothers.  They  belonged  to  him  and  he  belonged 
to  them.  They  were  members  of  the  human  race, 
children  of  the  great  family  of  God,  and  therefore 


HIS  BROTHERLINESS  151 

in  spite  of  all  that  they  had  done,  and  notwithstand- 
ing all  that  they  were,  he  treated  them  as  brothers. 
Not  only  did  this  conduct  make  a  profound  impres- 
sion upon  the  men  of  Jesus'  day,  but  it  has  m^ade 
such  a  deep  impression  on  all  succeeding  generations 
that  it  has  blinded  us  to  a  fact  that  should  never  be 
forgotten  —  that  Jesus  was  the  brother  of  every- 
body. 

Christianity  has  often  been  conceived  as  a 
religion  that  is  interested  chiefly  in  the  outcasts  of 
society,  in  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  depraved.  There 
are  many  who  always  think  of  Jesus  as  the  friend  of 
poor  men,  and  of  sick  men,  and  of  bad  men,  who 
never  think  of  him  as  the  brother  of  those  that  are 
rich  and  strong  and  good.  It  should  never  be  for- 
gotten that  Jesus  was  brotherly  toward  good  men 
as  well  as  bad  men,  rich  men  as  well  as  poor  men, 
respectable  men  as  well  as  disreputable  men  —  he 
was  the  brother  of  every  man.  For  instance,  a  rich 
man  in  Jericho  once  climbed  into  a  tree  in  order 
to  see  the  prophet  pass.  Jesus  at  once  told  him  to 
come  down,  and  that  he  wanted  to  take  dinner  with 
him.  On  a  certain  occasion  near  the  end  of  his  life, 
while  he  sat  at  meat  in  the  home  of  one  of  his  friends, 
a  member  of  the  household  poured  five  hundred 
dollars'  worth  of  ointment  on  his  feet  and  head, 
giving  us  proof  that  the  family  was  by  no  means 
poor.  If  more  is  said  in  the  New  Testament  about 
poor  men  than  rich  men,  it  is  because  Jesus  was 
able  to  come  nearer  to  poor  men  than  he  was  to 


152  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

rich  men.  Rich  men  are  always  inaccessible.  Here 
in  New  York  you  can  go  into  the  homes  of  the  poor 
anywhere,  but  from  the  homes  of  the  rich  you  are 
barred  out.  Rich  men  always  surround  themselves 
by  barriers,  by  cordons  of  servants,  and  therefore  we 
must  not  be  surprised  that  in  Palestine  it  was  neces- 
sary for  this  man  of  Galilee  to  deal  largely  with  the 
poor. 

But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  he  was  just 
as  friendly  toward  the  rich  Nicodemus  as  he  was 
to  the  poor  woman  at  the  well ;  that  he  was  just 
as  brotherly  toward  rich  Zaccheus  as  he  was  to  the 
poor  beggar  in  Jerusalem.  Nor  was  he  lacking  in 
brotherly  interest  in  the  respectable  people  of  his 
day.  If  the  New  Testament  makes  the  impression 
on  us  that  he  was  more  interested  in  the  outcast  and 
debased,  it  is  because  this  interest  in  them  was  so 
exceptional  that  it  made  a  greater  impression  upon 
those  who  wrote  the  story  of  his  life  than  any  other 
feature  of  his  conduct.  A  very  large  part  of  all  his 
work  was  done  for  respectable  people,  good  people, 
the  leading  people  of  his  day.  The  pious  Hebrews 
of  Palestine  were  tied  hand  and  foot  with  the  cords 
of  tradition.  They  were  bound  round  and  round 
with  laws  like  an  Egyptian  mummy  with  embalming 
cloths,  but  Jesus  gave  himself  to  the  work  of  setting 
them  free.  The  cords  were  tied  tight  and  he  at- 
tempted to  untie  the  knots,  but  in  his  effort  to  give 
men  emancipation  he  stirred  up  animosities  and 
awakened  hatreds  which  led  speedily  to  his  death. 


HIS  BROTHERLINESS  153 

It  was  in  his  effort  to  untie  the  knots  that  men  seized 
him,  crying,  "Crucify  him!" 

Let  us  notice  a  few  illustrations  of  his  brotherli- 
ness.  When  John  the  Baptist  was  baptizing  in  the 
Jordan,  Jesus  came  down  from  GaHlee  to  be  bap- 
tized. John,  when  he  saw  Jesus  approaching,  cried 
out :  "  O,  no,  I  cannot  baptize  you,  you  are  too  good. 
There  is  reason  why  I  should  be  baptized  of  you. 
This  baptism  is  intended  for  sinners.  I  will  not, 
therefore,  baptize  you."  But  Jesus  would  not 
listen  to  him,  he  insisted  upon  being  baptized.  He 
would  identify  himself  with  his  brethren.  "I  want 
to  be  counted,"  he  said,  "a  man  among  men." 
It  was  not  a  question  whether  he  was  good  or  not, 
it  was  a  question  of  being  brotherly.  He  refused 
to  hold  aloof  from  any  movement  that  promised 
good  to  his  country.  He  subjected  himself  to  the 
same  ceremony  of  which  his  fellow-citizens  were  in 
need.  He  took  his  place  at  the  very  beginning  of 
his  ministry  among  his  brethren.  Nowhere  does 
his  brotherliness  come  out  more  clearly  than  in  his 
treatment  of  the  sick.  He  could  not  pass  a  sick  man 
without  his  soul  going  out  to  help  him.  Pain  in  its 
every  form  appealed  to  him,  misery  drew  virtue 
from  his  heart.  A  large  proportion  of  all  the  re- 
corded miracles  are  miracles  of  healing.  He  could 
not  look  upon  the  deaf  or  dumb,  the  palsied,  the 
blind,  without  putting  forth  his  power  to  help  them. 
No  finer  illustration  of  this  brotherliness  is  afforded 
in  the  New  Testament  than  that  which  St.  John 


154  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

gives  in  the  story  of  the  impotent  man  at  Bethesda. 
Here  was  an  invalid  who  for  thirty-eight  years  had 
lain  in  helplessness  without  a  friend  in  all  that  great 
city.  He  needed  only  a  lift  in  order  to  bring  him 
within  the  reach  of  influences  that  were  healing, 
but  no  one  would  lend  a  lifting  hand.  No  other 
incident  in  the  Bible  throws  such  a  strong  light  upon 
the  inhumanity  of  the  world  nineteen  hundred  years 
ago.  We  are  living  in  a  day  when  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
is  working  everywhere.  Everywhere  there  is  an  out- 
stretched hand,  and  everywhere  human  hearts  are 
beating  in  sympathy  with  the  helpless  and  the  sick. 
Travelers  through  the  Orient  tell  us  that  we  people 
of  the  West  have  no  conception  of  the  indifference 
of  the  Oriental  heart  to  human  woes  and  miseries. 
Jesus,  by  being  brotherly,  has  set  an  example  after 
which  the  life  of  the  world  is  being  patterned,  and 
in  every  land  through  which  his  name  has  been 
carried  the  hearts  of  men  are  gentler  and  their  hands 
more  eager  to  render  help. 

His  brotherliness  is  also  manifested  in  his  teach- 
ing. He  could  not  look  into  men's  faces  without 
being  pained  by  their  confusion,  their  perplexity, 
and  their  misery.  He  could  not  see  men  passing 
on  to  the  judgment  day  without  telling  them  some- 
thing about  the  great  God  in  whose  world  they  were 
living.  Whenever  he  saw  men  fainting  and  scat- 
tered abroad  like  sheep  having  no  shepherd,  his 
heart  was  moved  with  compassion  on  them.  When 
he  looked  into  the  tired  faces  of  the  Galilean  peasants 


HIS  BROTHERLINESS  155 

his  heart  cried  out,  **Come  unto  me  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 
What  a  sob  there  is  in  the  words,  "O  Jerusalem! 
Jerusalem  !'*  There  is  in  the  words  the  moan  of  a 
brotherly  heart.  And  not  only  was  he  brotherly 
himself,  but  to  him  brotherliness  is  the  very  essence 
of  religion.  Without  brotherliness  there  can  be 
no  religion  that  is  pleasing  unto  God.  The  old  law 
had  said  that  one  man  must  not  kill  another,  but 
Jesus  went  far  beyond  the  requirements  of  that  law 
—  he  said  that  calling  a  man  names  was  also  wicked 
and  would  bring  him  into  judgment.  To  use  ad- 
jectives that  pierce  and  cut,  to  throw  out  mean 
epithets  full  of  contumely  and  scorn,  to  speak  of 
men  in  ways  that  degrade  them  —  that  is  wickedness 
and  will  bring  the  severest  retribution.  One  of  the 
greatest  of  his  parables  is  the  parable  of  Dives  and 
Lazarus.  A  rich  man  fares  sumptuously  every  day, 
and  at  his  gate  there  lies  a  poor  sick  beggar,  his  body 
covered  with  ulcers,  with  no  friend  to  bring  relief. 
Only  the  dogs  that  prowl  the  streets  lick  the  loath- 
some man's  sores.  Jesus  says  when  that  thing 
happens  in  this  world,  something  happens  in  the 
next  world.  You  can  almost  feel  the  heat  of  his 
indignant  soul.  You  can  hear  him  asking,  "Do 
you  suppose  that  inhumanity  like  that  will  go  un- 
punished in  the  universe  of  God?"  It  was  not 
because  the  rich  man  was  rich  and  dressed  in  fine 
raiment  and  fared  sumptuously  every  day,  that  later 
on  he  lifted  up  his  eyes  in  torment.     Abraham  also 


156  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

was  rich  and  fared  sumptuously  every  day,  but 
Abraham  went  to  heaven  because  he  had  a  brother's 
heart.  This  rich  man  Dives  went  to  hell  because 
his  heart  was  not  tender,  his  sympathy  did  not  go 
out  to  a  brother's  need. 

And  how  did  Palestine  receive  this  brotherliness  ? 
It  did  not  like  it.  Jesus  was  too  brotherly,  men 
misunderstood  him.  They  misinterpreted  him,  they 
maligned  him,  they  laid  their  plans  to  kill  him ;  but 
they  could  not  make  him  anything  else  than  brotherly. 
In  spite  of  all  their  ugliness  and  vindictiveness  he 
went  on  helping  them  all  he  could,  and  when  they 
laid  their  plots  to  kill  him,  he  went  bravely  forward 
giving  help,  saying :  "  If  I  cannot  help  them  with  my 
life  I  will  help  them  with  my  death.  By  dying  I  will 
convince  them  that  I  wanted  to  do  them  good.  I, 
if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me.  When 
hanging  on  the  cross  they  will  understand  me  as 
they  cannot  understand  me  now.  When  they  hear 
me  praying  for  them  with  my  dying  breath,  they  will 
be  convinced  that  I  am  indeed  their  brother." 


XIII 
THE   OPTIMISM  OF   JESUS 


XIII 

THE  OPTIMISM  OF  JESUS 

"Be  of  good  cheer." 

—  John  xvi  :  ^^. 

By  optimism  is  not  meant  that  jaunty,  brainless, 
happy-go-lucky  buoyancy  which  so  often  calls 
itself  by  this  pretentious  name.  If  you  insist  upon 
defining  an  optimist  as  a  man  who  plays  only  with 
sunbeams,  and  who  can  hear  nothing  but  harmonies, 
and  who  is  slightly  concerned  with  the  world's 
agonies  and  tragedies  because  of  his  fancy  that  no 
matter  what  he  or  any  one  else  does  everything  is 
certain  to  come  out  all  right,  then  Jesus  was  not  an 
optimist.  There  is  a  sentimental  optimism  which 
is  irrational  and  immoral.  It  is  the  product  of  a 
shallow  brain  and  a  stupid  heart.  It  shuts  its  eyes 
to  all  hideous  facts  and  stops  its  ears  to  all  horrible 
sounds,  and  insists  that  in  spite  of  appearances  all 
is  well  with  the  world.  This  sort  of  optimism  faces 
the  future  with  a  confidence  born  not  of  courage 
but  of  moral  indolence.  It  assumes  that  there  is 
in  the  nature  of  things  an  irresistible  tendency 
upward,  and  that  irrespective  of  the  conduct  of 
any  man  or  any  set  of  men,  all  will  be  well  in  the  end. 

'59 


l6o  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

No  such  optimism  as  this  is  known  in  the  New 
Testament. 

If  we  have  our  superficial  optimists,  we  have  also 
our  shallow  and  short-sighted  pessimists.  There 
are  men  who  have  a  genius  for  seeing  shadows. 
Their  ears  are  keen  for  discords.  They  keep  their 
eyes  wide  open  and  see  in  a  lurid  light  the  tragedy 
of  the  world's  life.  Its  masses  of  suffering  and 
wretchedness  and  woe,  its  sorrows  and  vices  and  sins, 
lie  like  a  great  weight  upon  the  mind  and  the  heart 
until  the  former  is  dizzy  and  the  latter  is  sick.  These 
men  listen  to  the  world's  sighing  and  sobbing  and 
agonizing  until  history  seems  a  hideous  nightmare 
and  existence  itself  a  curse.  If  such  a  man  were  to 
speak  to  you  to-night,  he  would  tell  you  a  story  which 
would  lacerate  and  darken  your  heart.  He  would 
remind  you  of  what  the  thieves  and  the  robbers,  big 
and  little,  have  been  doing.  He  would  call  your 
attention  to  the  stories  of  greed  and  lust,  cruelty  and 
lawlessness,  which  have  recently  come  in  from  all 
parts  of  the  world.  He  would  pile  up  before  you 
the  sickening  record  of  a  single  month's  outrage  and 
atrocity  and  crime,  and  then  ask  you  if  it  is  not  clear 
that  everything  is  going  to  the  dogs.  These  pessi- 
mists lift  up  their  voices  on  every  side.  They  tell 
us  that  republican  institutions  are  in  a  process  of 
decay,  that  our  cities  are  hopelessly  corrupted  and 
sunken,  that  the  days  of  the  republic  itself  are 
numbered.  As  for  society  there  is  no  health  in  it. 
From  its  head  to  its  feet  there  is  nothing  but  fester- 


HIS  OPTIMISM  i6l 

ing  sores.  Babylon  never  matched  our  luxury,  and 
Rome  never  touched  the  depths  of  our  infamy. 
The  church  like  everything  else  is  decaying  and  is 
fit  only  for  the  bonfire.  We  may  whistle  if  we  wish 
to  keep  up  our  courage ;  but  after  us  —  the  deluge ! 
The  world  is  running  down  a  very  steep  place  toward 
the  edge  of  the  abyss.  Not  a  few  men  are  thus  think- 
ing and  speaking.  Two  of  the  greatest  writers  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  Thomas  Carlyle  and  John  Ruskin, 
were  pessimistic  in  their  temper  and  outlook.  The 
Scotchman  filled  the  world  with  his  shriekings  and 
the  Englishman  filled  the  world  with  his  sighings. 
Innumerable  smaller  men  are  filling  the  world 
with  their  sniffiings  and  whimperings.  But  from 
the  grinning  optimist  and  the  hysterical  pessimist, 
we  can  expect  little.  They  have  nothing  to  offer 
toward  the  solution  of  the  great  world  problems. 

Let  us  open  our  New  Testament  and  listen  to  a 
man  who  in  these  confused  and  distracting  times  can 
give  us  confidence  and  hope.  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was  not  a  man  who  could  shut  his  eyes  to  the  sorrow 
and  the  heart-break  of  the  world.  Never  were  eyes 
wider  open  than  his.  He  saw  everything.  He  saw 
things  which  the  world  had  passed  by  unnoticed. 
He  saw  suffering  in  its  every  form  —  it  tugged  at  his 
heart  strings.  The  tired,  sad  faces  of  human  beings 
haunted  him,  they  spoke  to  him  of  the  tragedy  of 
the  world's  disordered  heart.  He  had  ears  which 
caught  every  shriek  of  agony,  every  cry  of  distress, 
every  sigh  of  want.     He  saw  with  eyes  which  pierced. 


l62  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

Underneath  the  tragedy  of  suffering  he  saw  the 
blacker  tragedy  of  sin.  Down  underneath  the  sur- 
face of  the  world's  life  he  saw  the  cancer  which  was 
eating  up  its  strength  and  its  hope  and  its  joy.  He 
recognized  as  none  other  the  tremendous  power  of 
evil.  He  saw  with  open  eyes  the  roads  which  lead 
to  death.  He  knew,  as  no  other  has  ever  known  so 
well,  that  evil  must  be  resisted,  that  sin  must  be 
faced  and  grappled  with,  that  it  is  only  by  struggle, 
suffering,  and  death  that  the  victory  can  be  won. 
But  he  remains  nevertheless  undaunted.  He  never 
loses  heart.  He  sees  all,  and  he  hears  all,  but  he 
never  gives  up  hope.  He  faces  facts  as  they  are, 
and  he  predicts  grander  facts  which  are  to  be.  He 
sees  both  sides  —  the  bright  side  and  the  dark  side 
—  and  having  seen  both  sides  his  face  has  light  on 
it.  He  sings  and  he  also  sobs.  His  singing  is  some- 
times broken  by  his  sobbing,  but  he  is  never  over- 

j  whelmed,  he  never  surrenders,  his  head  is  always  up, 
and  his  unfailing  exhortation  is,  **  Be  of  good  cheer ! " 

L^  This  is  the  dominating  note  of  the  New 
Testament.  It  comes  up  out  of  the  heart  of  the 
blackest  tragedy  which  our  world  has  known. 
What  a  sad  and  depressing  book  the  New  Testa- 
ment ought  to  be  considering  the  dismal  story  it  has 
to  tell !  It  gives  us  the  life  of  one  who  was  a  man 
of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief.  It  portrays 
his  sufferings  through  the  cruel,  disappointing  years 
to  his  horrible  death  upon  the  cross.  It  narrates 
his  awful  predictions  of  coming  woe  and  loss  and 


HIS  OPTIMISM  163 

ruin.  It  tells  us  that  the  leading  cities  of  Galilee 
are  rushing  to  destruction,  and  that  even  Jerusalem, 
glorious  with  the  triumphs  of  a  thousand  years,  is 
irretrievably  doomed  and  that  not  one  stone  of  all 
its  stately  edifices  shall  be  left  standing  on  another. 
Its  destruction  shall  be  complete.  And  yet  not- 
withstanding this  heart-breaking  story,  the  New 
Testament  does  not  depress  us  or  leave  a  shadow 
on  the  heart.  It  is  a  jubilant,  exhilarating  book, 
and  the  words  which  linger  longest  in  the  ear  are, 
"Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the  world." 
The  New  Testament  is  a  gospel,  a  bit  of  glorious 
news,  because  at  the  centre  of  it  there  lives  and 
works  the  world's  greatest  optimist. 

Here  is  the  optimist  whom  we  have  been  looking 
for.  This  is  the  man  who  can  inspire  our  confidence 
and  give  us  hope.  We  need  a  man  with  open  eye 
and  open  ear  and  open  heart,  a  man  who  sees  things 
as  they  are  and  knows  the  thickness  of  the  belt  of 
night.  We  cannot  follow  a  leader  who  keeps  cry- 
ing, ** Peace,"  when  we  know  that  there  is  no  peace; 
nor  can  we  trust  a  teacher  who  asserts  that  all  is 
well,  when  his  assertion  is  contradicted  daily  by  the 
experience  of  the  world.  Give  us  a  man  who  feels 
the  fury  of  the  storm,  and  is  also  certain  of  the  calm 
which  is  going  to  follow.  Give  us  a  man  who  can 
measure  accurately  the  dimensions  of  the  night,  and 
who  also  sees  the  dawning  of  a  glorious  morning. 
Jesus  is  the  prince  of  optimists  —  his  optimism  is 
the  optimism  of  God  Himself. 


l64  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

jLet  us  try  to  find  the  secret  of  Jesus'  optimism. 
/The  secret  is  written  large  across  the  pages  of  the 
/  Gospel.    It  was  a  secret  too  good  to  keep  —  he 
/  gave  it  to  everybody  who  had  ears  to  hear.    It  was 
I    an  abiding  confidence  in  God.    We  are  sure  of  Him 
^""^  sometimes.     Our  faith  is  clouded  and  it  is  inter- 
mittent.    It  floods  and  ebbs  like  the  tide.     Jesus 
never  doubted.    His   vision   was   imclouded.    His 
trust  was   absolute.    To  him   God  was  an  ever- 
present  Father.     This  was  his  new  name  for  God. 
The  prophets  and  poets  of  Israel  had  only  seldom 
ventured  to  think  of  God  as  father,  and  then  only 
by  way  of  dim  surmise.   With  Jesus,  God  was  always 
Father.     This  is  the  name  he  carried  on  his  lips 
when  a  boy  of  twelve,  it  was  on  his  lips  when  he  passed 
from  this  world  into  the  other.    He  placed  it  on  the 
lips  of  every  man  who  followed  him.    It  constantly 
amazed  him  that  men  had  so  little  faith  in  God. 
"Have  faith  in  God!"    This  was  the  exhortation 
with  which  he  braced  the  hearts  of  those  who  wished 
to  live  his  life  and  do  his  work.    The  words  came 
with  the  power  of  a  revelation,  because  warm  with 
the  blood  of  a  heart  which  knew  the  secret  of  per- 

/fect  trust. 
^  Along  with  unswerving  trust  in  God  there  went 
an  unshakable  confidence  in  man.  Jesus  believed 
in  human  nature.  He  saw  the  possibilities  and 
capacities  of  the  human  heart.  He  saw  men's 
littlenesses,  frailties,  vices,  sins,  but  underneath  all 
these  he  saw  a  soul  created  in  God's  image.    The 


HIS  OPTIMISM  165 

deepest  thing  in  man  he  saw  to  be  not  animalism 
but  Godlikeness.  He  called  Simon  the  son  of 
Jonas  a  rock,  when  Simon  was  counted  the  most 
fickle  and  fluctuating  man  in  all  the  town.  Jesus 
saw  that  which  was  deepest  in  him.  He  had  con- 
fidence not  only  in  people  who  went  to  church,  but 
also  in  people  who  never  went.  He  had  hope  of  the 
Publicans  and  sinners.  He  knew  that  Zaccheus  could 
repent  and  that  Matthew  could  become  a  preacher. 
He  believed  that  men  and  women  who  have  fallen 
all  the  way  to  the  bottom  can  climb  back  again, 
"The  harlots  are  going  into  the  kingdom  before 
you!" — thus  he  spoke  to  a  company  of  hard- 
hearted pessimists  who  had  lost  confidence  in  the 
recoverableness  of  human  nature.  Man,  in  spite 
of  his  aberrations  and  stumblings  and  fallings,  is  a 
being  on  whom  you  can  rely,  he  has  in  him  the  very 
essence  and  nature  of  God.  And  so  Jesus  said  to 
Simon  Peter,  "Thou  art  rock  and  upon  this  rock  I 
will  build  my  church,  and  the  gates  of  Hades  shall 
not  prevail  against  it!'*  What  sublime  confidence! 
Can  an  unconquerable  institution,  one  against 
which  no  forces  in  the  universe  can  possibly  pre- 
vail, be  constructed  out  of  men?  Can  impregnable 
walls  be  built  of  human  nature?  Can  eternal 
foundations  be  laid  in  human  hearts?  Yes,  says 
Jesus,  and  without  a  doubt  of  the  fidelity  of  his 
apostles,  he  rolled  the  huge  world  upon  their  shoul- 
ders and  went  away. 

Nor  could  any  experience  break  down  this  trust 


l66  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

in  the  divine  capacities  of  human  nature.  When 
has  a  man  had  greater  reason  to  abandon  faith  in 
men  than  this  optimist  of  Galilee?  He  lived  in  a 
corrupt  and  demoralizing  age.  Government  was 
both  tyrannical  and  rotten.  Its  officials  were  for 
the  most  part  cynics  and  grafters.  The  Jewish 
church  was  formal,  lifeless,  and  hypocritical.  Its 
leaders,  many  of  them,  were  dead  to  the  movements 
of  God^s  spirit.  Society  was  disgustingly  corrupt. 
Men  had  grown  sceptical  everywhere  of  the  honesty 
of  man  or  the  virtue  of  woman.  But  Jesus  trusted 
men.  He  did  this  in  the  teeth  of  experiences  which 
swept  over  him  like  a  dark  and  devastating  flood. 
His  entire  career  was  a  tragedy.  He  was  suspected, 
^nisrepresented,  hated.  He  was  surrounded  by  liars 
wherever  he  went.  No  matter  what  he  said  his 
sentences  were  twisted,  and  no  matter  what  he  did 
his  motives  were  impugned.  Such  treatment  is  apt 
to  sour  the  heart  of  any  one  who  is  long  subjected 
to  it.  Jesus  was  mistreated  all  the  way.  The  in- 
human wretches  who  tortured  him  in  the  courtyard 
of  Pontius  Pilate  were  doing  only  what  men  had 
done  to  him  from  the  beginning.  His  life  was  one 
long-drawn  crucifixion.  Men  were  always  jamming 
thorns  into  his  brow,  jabbing  spears  into  his  side, 
driving  spikes  through  his  hands  and  feet.  But 
he  never  gave  up  faith  in  human  nature.  When  he 
saw  that  men  were  determined  to  take  his  life  he 
said,  "If  I  be  lifted  up,  I  will  draw  all  men  unto 
me!"    He   felt   that    no   matter   what    cruel   and 


HIS   OPTIMISM  167 

devilish  things  human  nature  might  be  guilty  of, 
there  was  after  all  down  deep  in  the  heart  that  which 
would  respond  to  forgiveness  and  love.  The  ene- 
mies of  Jesus  were  the  meanest,  most  unprincipled, 
diabolical  set  of  human  hounds  which  ever  tracked 
an  innocent  man  to  death;  but  they  never  broke 
down  his  confidence  in  the  divinity  of  the  human 
heart. 

It  was  not  only  his  enemies  but  his  friends  who 
caused  him  unspeakable  anguish.  Among  his  own 
disciples,  in  the  innermost  circle  of  his  trusted  friends, 
there  was  a  man  who  in  return  for  all  his  confidence 
and  all  his  goodness  became  a  traitor,  and  betrayed 
him  into  the  hands  of  the  men  who  had  agreed  upon 
his  death.  And  this  traitor  did  not  betray  him  in  a 
manner  decent  even  among  traitors,  but  in  a  way  of 
which  a  devil  might  have  been  ashamed.  He  be- 
trayed Jesus  with  a  kiss.  Hell  itself  can  produce 
nothing  viler  than  sugar-coated  treachery.  But  no 
matter  what  individual  men  may  do,  man  is  to  be 
trusted  still.  When  he  comes  to  his  true  self,  he 
will  say,  "I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father!" 

The  faith  of  Jesus  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the 
scepticism  of  many  individuals  whom  we  have 
known.  There  is  nothing  so  staggering  to  one's 
confidence  in  human  nature  as  an  unfortunate  ex- 
perience in  early  life.  A  young  man  starts  out, 
hopeful  and  trustful,  falls  in  with  men  of  good  repu- 
tation and  high  standing  who  gouge  him  and  skin 
him,  and  for  the  rest  of  his  life  the  man  is  sceptical 


l68  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

and  possibly  cynical.  A  young  woman  begins  life 
with  a  heart  which  trusts  everybody.  She  is  de- 
ceived and  betrayed,  either  by  man  or  by  woman, 
and  she  carries  a  wound  which  time  does  not  heal. 
There  are  in  every  community  men  and  women, 
soured  on  the  world,  suspicious  of  everybody,  cling- 
ing to  the  conviction  that  there  is  nobody  in  whom 
one  can  trust.  Would  that  all  such  cynics  might 
come  to  Jesus  and  learn  from  him  to  expect  large 
things  from  human  nature  everywhere.  He  sees 
the  shallowness,  the  paltriness,  the  frailty  of  the 
heart ;  but  he  also  sees  its  capacities,  its  possibilities, 
the  mustard-seed  germs  of  virtues  and  graces  which 
the  Spirit  of  God  can  unfold.  We  measure  men  too 
much  by  their  powers,  and  not  enough  by  their 
capacities,  by  what  they  are  to-day  and  not  by  what 
they  may  become  later  on.  It  was  because  the  eyes 
of  Jesus  swept  the  future  that  he  could  stand  around 
the  wreckage  of  a  race  in  ruins  and  say,  "Be  of 
good  cheer!" 

This  indomitable  Optimist  has  confidence  in  you. 
You  have  no  hope  for  yourself.  He  has.  You  see 
your  weakness,  sordidness,  vileness ;  he  sees  deeper, 
and  seeing  deeper  he  has  hope  for  you.  He  sees 
your  capacity  of  God.  He  knows  what  you  can  do 
when  you  have  come  to  yourself.  He  sees  deeper 
also  into  God.  You  have  no  adequate  conception 
of  the  patience  or  the  mercy  of  the  Infinite  Father. 
He  has.  You  do  not  know  what  Infinite  Love  can 
accomplish.    He  does.     Because  of  your  transgres- 


HIS  OPTIMISM  169 

sions  you  have  lost  faith  in  yourself.  He  has  not. 
Because  you  have  failed  a  thousand  times  you  say 
there  is  no  use  trying  any  more.  He  says,  ''Try 
again !"  If  you  give  yourself  to  him,  he  will  make 
of  you  an  optimist  I 


XIV 

THE   CHIVALRY   OF    JESUS 


XIV 

THE  CHIVALRY  OF  JESUS 

"And  touched  him." 

—  Matthew  viii  :  3. 

I  HAVE  found  difficulty  in  finding  a  word  to  ex- 
press the  quality  of  Jesus  to  which  I  now  desire  to 
invite  your  attention.  This  quality  is  courage,  but 
it  is  something  more  than  courage.  Courage  is  a 
temper  of  the  heart,  a  firmness  of  spirit  in  the  pres- 
ence of  difficulty  and  danger.  But  there  are  many 
kinds  of  courage.  There  is  first  of  all  bravery,  an 
intrepid  sort  of  courage  which  has  in  it  a  certain 
daring  which  ordinary  courage  does  not  have. 
Bravery  steps  ahead  of  courage  and  takes  risks  which 
the  latter  does  not  invite.  Moreover  there  is  forti- 
tude or  courage  in  its  passive  form.  If  bravery 
rushes  forward  to  attack,  fortitude  holds  its  ground 
and  endures.  And  then  again  there  is  valor  which 
we  have  consecrated  for  service  on  the  battlefield, 
and  gallantry  which  is  an  adventurous  and  splendid 
variety  of  heroism  —  heroism  as  it  were  with  a  halo. 
But  not  one  of  these  words  is  rich  or  wide  enough 
to  express  all  that  is  in  my  mind  when  I  contemplate 
a  certain  side  of  the  courageous  heart  of  Jesus. 

173 


1/4  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

He  was  heroic  but  he  was  more  than  that.  His 
heroism  was  a  superb  gallantry  and  something 
more.  There  was  in  it  a  delicious  courtesy,  a  beau- 
tiful and  gentle  graciousness  toward  the  weak  and 
helpless.  Possibly  we  can  find  no  better  word  to 
cover  this  rich  characteristic  of  the  heart  of  Jesus 
than  the  word  "chivalry."  It  is  a  word  taken  from 
the  world  of  knighthood.  The  very  sound  of  the 
word  has  magic  in  it,  and  calls  up  before  the  eyes 
splendid  troops  of  heroic  men  who  went  forth  in  the 
mediaeval  times  to  protect  the  weak,  maintain  the 
right,  and  live  a  stainless  life.  In  a  world  from  which 
justice  had  been  largely  banished  and  in  which 
might  had  usurped  the  place  of  right,  the  knight 
arose  to  defend  the  weak  and  to  bring  just  causes 
through  to  victory.  Woman  especially  was  the 
object  of  his  care.  By  her  weakness  she  appealed 
to  that  which  was  deepest  in  his  heart.  By  defend- 
ing her  and  all  others  who  like  her  were  at  the  mercy 
of  the  brute  powers  of  a  barbaric  world  the  knight 
won  for  himself  a  shining  place  in  history  and  gave 
to  chivalry  a  splendor  which  will  never  fade.  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  was  a  knight.  On  foot  he  travelled 
forth,  clad  in  the  armor  of  a  peerless  manhood,  to 
shield  the  weak,  maintain  the  right,  and  live  a  life 
which  should  charm  and  win  the  world.  At  the 
head  of  the  great  company  of  knightly  souls  by 
whose  bravery  and  prowess  the  world  has  been  made 
better,  stands  this  knight  of  knights,  this  chivalric 
Man  of  Galilee. 


HIS  CHIVALRY  175 

His  gracious  courage  first  manifested  itself  at  the 
river  Jordan  on  the  day  on  which  he  was  baptized. 
John  did  not  want  to  baptize  him.  There  was  no 
reason  why  he  should  be  baptized.  His  heart  was 
unstained  by  sin  and  the  baptism  of  John  was  a 
baptism  of  repentance.  To  be  baptized,  therefore, 
might  lead  to  misunderstandings  and  give  rise  to 
misrepresentations.  There  were  many  risks  in  this 
yielding  of  himself  to  baptism,  but  he  accepted  them 
all  because  his  great  soul  yearned  to  identify  himself 
with  his  countrymen,  with  the  common  race  of  men. 
Men  were  sinners,  they  needed  repentance,  they 
needed  just  the  baptism  to  which  the  prophet  of 
the  desert  was  calling  them,  and  this  young  car- 
penter from  Nazareth,  with  no  need  in  his  own 
soul  for  the  baptismal  water,  goes  bravely  forward 
saying,  "I  too  must  be  baptized."  Strong  himself, 
he  will  identify  himself  with  this  reformatory  move- 
ment. Lifted  above  the  sins  of  ordinary  humanity 
he  will  link  himself  at  the  very  start  with  those  who 
carry  on  their  hearts  the  burden  of  transgression 
and  who  cry  out  day  and  night  for  deliverance.  A 
knight  he  was  at  the  beginning ;  a  knight  he  will  be 
to  the  end. 

Mark  how  his  soul  goes  out  to  those  who  suffer. 
Physical  distress  pierced  him  and  wrung  his  heart. 
Sickness  in  the  first  century  did  not  receive  the 
attention  which  it  receives  in  ours.  The  poor  were 
allowed  to  suffer  unattended  and  to  die  unrelieved. 
There  were  no  hospitals  such  as  ours,  and  no  earnest 


176  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

bands  of  philanthropic  men  and  women  giving  their 
lives  to  the  alleviation  of  pain  and  to  banishing  the 
terrors  of  the  dying  hour.  Insane  people  were  not 
housed  and  cared  for.  Supposed  to  be  possessed 
by  devils,  they  were  driven  out  of  the  town  and 
allowed  to  wander  in  cemeteries  and  desert  places, 
a  terror  to  all  who  heard  their  shrieks  and  cries. 
Jesus  pitied  them.  No  one  else  reached  out  to  them 
a  helping  hand.  The  Evangelists  take  delight  in 
telling  us  how  again  and  again  he  healed  those  who 
were  afflicted  with  demons.  If  there  was  a  man  in 
Palestine  more  dreaded  than  a  maniac  it  was  a  leper. 
But  even  the  leper  was  not  beyond  the  reach  of 
Jesus'  heart.  Men  turned  their  backs  upon  him. 
Laws  prescribed  the  distance  which  he  must  keep 
from  every  other  human  being.  Between  him  and 
all  others  there  was  a  deep  gulf  fixed,  but  this 
Knight  of  Nazareth  crossed  the  chasm  and  to  the 
consternation  of  all  Palestine  not  only  spoke  kindly 
to  the  leper,  but  laid  his  hand  upon  him. 

His  heart  was  ever  open  to  the  neglected  and  for- 
lorn. Between  Galilee  and  Judea  there  lived  a 
tribe  of  people,  half  Jewish  and  half  Pagan,  who  in 
their  religion  as  well  as  in  their  blood  exhibited  a 
degeneration  from  the  high  ideals  of  the  early  times. 
Degenerates  and  apostates,  they  were  held  in  deep 
abhorrence  by  Hebrews  whose  hearts  were  true  to 
the  high  traditions  of  their  country.  It  was  only 
in  cases  of  necessity  that  a  Jew  could  be  induced  to 
pass  through  the  region  inhabited  by  these  people. 


HIS  CHIVALRY  1 77 

Jesus  not  only  passed  through  Samaria,  but  he  tar- 
ried there  and  taught  the  people  just  as  he  taught 
the  men  of  Judea  and  Galilee.  They  were  outcasts, 
but  they  were  also  human,  and  if  they  had  no  pro- 
tector or  friend,  he  at  any  rate  would  befriend  them. 
Some  of  them  might  not  understand  how  to  receive 
him,  but  such  churlish  conduct  could  not  dampen 
the  ardor  of  his  interest  in  them.  The  disciples 
with  blazing  hearts  might  want  to  bum  up  a  Samari- 
tan village,  but  the  Knight  of  Galilee  came  not  to 
destroy  but  to  save.  No  man  could  take  his  place 
on  the  side  of  the  Samaritans  without  paying  an 
awful  penalty,  and  Jesus  paid  it.  Men  gnashed 
their  teeth  and  hissed,  "You  are  a  Samaritan." 
That  was  the  most  cutting  thing  it  was  possible  for 
them  to  say,  but  he  never  swerved  from  his  course. 
He  healed  Samaritan  lepers  as  freely  as  any  others, 
and  when  he  painted  a  man  who  represented  his 
ideal  of  goodness  he  painted  him  with  the  features 
and  dress  of  a  Samaritan.  The  parable  which  has 
probably  taken  the  deepest  hold  on  the  heart  of  the 
world  of  all  the  parables  which  Jesus  spoke  is  the 
parable  of  the  "  Good  Samaritan."  The  creation  of 
that  parable  was  a  sublime  act  of  chivalry. 

There  were  outcasts  even  in  Galilee  and  Judea. 
There  were  people  who  were  estranged  from  organ- 
ized religion.  They  neglected  the  observances  and 
regulations  of  the  synagogue,  and  were  labelled 
"sinners"  by  the  pious.  They  were  not  in  all  cases 
profligates  or  vagabonds,  but  simply  men  and  women 


178  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

who  had  no  liking  for  the  ceremonies  of  the  church 
and  who  took  no  interest  in  the  Rabbis  or  their 
teachings.  The  Rabbis  in  return  took  no  interest 
in  them.  They  were  counted  renegades  and  apos- 
tates, from  whose  society  it  was  well  that  all  decent 
people  should  hold  aloof.  In  many  of  these  people 
there  were  aspirations  after  better  things,  and  in  all 
of  them  there  were  the  deep  hungers  and  warm  feel- 
ings of  our  common  humanity.  But  they  were  out- 
casts. The  church  had  laid  a  ban  upon  them. 
They  were  dangerous.  Their  example  was  de- 
moralizing, their  ideas  were  poison.  No  one  who 
cared  for  his  reputation  as  a  God-fearing  man  dared 
to  associate  with  them.  No  Rabbi  in  all  Palestine 
would  risk  his  good  name  by  dining  with  any  one 
of  them.  But  Jesus  was  not  a  man  to  be  deterred 
by  the  execrations  of  polite  society.  The  so-called 
sinners  were  human  beings,  and  because  children 
of  God  they  were  not  to  be  despised.  If  no  other 
religious  teacher  would  go  among  them,  he  would. 
He  did.  He  made  himself  of  no  reputation.  He 
sat  down  with  sinners  and  ate  with  them.  The 
Pharisees  never  forgave  him.  His  courtesy  to  the 
unchurched  masses  hastened  the  day  of  his  cruci- 
fixion. 

Among  the  so-called  sinners  there  was  a  group  of 
men  lower  than  all  the  others,  known  as  Publicans. 
These  were  tax  collectors  whose  business  it  was  to 
collect  Jewish  money  and  send  it  up  to  Rome.  The 
tax  collector  is  never  a  popular  personage,  and  if  he 


HIS  CHIVALRY  179 

collects  money  to  send  to  an  outside  and  tyrannical 
power  he  is  not  only  unpopular  but  execrated.  The 
Publicans  of  Palestine  were  hated  with  a  fury  of 
detestation  which  modem  society  cannot  parallel. 
Publicans  were  counted  lower  than  street  dogs. 
The  Jewish  church  would  not  allow  them  even  to 
contribute  to  its  treasury.  But  Jesus  made  friends 
of  these  men.  They  were  friendless,  and  in  many 
cases  of  unsavory  character,  but  he  was  a  physician, 
and  like  all  true  physicians  he  was  especially  inter- 
ested in  those  who  were  dangerously  ill.  Not  only 
did  he  go  into  their  homes  and  eat  with  them  in  a 
cosmopolitan  city  like  Capernaum,  but  he  dined 
with  a  prominent  leader  of  the  Publicans  in  the  old 
priestly  city  of  Jericho.  Not  only  did  he  eat  with 
them,  but  when  the  time  came  to  select  twelve  men 
who  should  be  his  most  intimate  friends  and  most 
conspicuous  workers,  one  of  them  was  a  Publican. 
And  then  as  if  to  push  his  chivalry  to  a  climax  he 
painted  a  picture  of  two  men  praying  in  the  temple 
—  one  a  Pharisee  and  the  other  a  Publican.  One 
need  not  wonder  that  the  Pharisees  cried :  "  Crucify 
him!  Crucify  him!"  When  was  a  knight  ever 
so  reckless  in  throwing  his  protection  round  the 
weak? 

But  as  is  the  case  with  all  true  knights,  it  is  in  his 
attitude  to  woman  that  Jesus'  chivalry  reaches  its 
finest  expression.  Woman  has  never  been  fairly 
treated  in  the  Orient.  She  has  always  been  counted 
inferior  to  man.     Sometimes  she  has  been  a  toy,  most 


l80  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

frequently  a  drudge,  and  always  something  a  little 
higher  than  an  animal  but  far  lower  than  a  man. 
The  degradation  of  woman  in  such  countries  as 
India,  for  example,  is  a  shock  and  a  bewilderment 
to  all  observing  travellers.  The  Hindu  treatment  of 
woman  is  a  tragedy  the  full  blackness  of  which 
has  never  been  reahzed  by  the  people  of  the  West. 
Those  who  best  understand  the  Indian  problem 
assert  that  there  is  no  hope  for  India  until  woman  is 
given  there  her  rightful  place.  It  is  with  such  facts 
in  mind  that  we  are  able  to  appreciate  the  grotesque 
folly  and  the  ludicrous  ignorance  of  those  American 
women  who  have  an  inextinguishable  craving  for 
the  religions  of  the  distant  East.  These  women,  not 
satisfied  with  Christianity,  and  being  somewhat 
weary  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  sit  spellbound  at  the 
feet  of  sundry  Hindu  teachers,  who  without  authority 
or  standing  in  their  own  country  come  to  America 
to  expound  the  beautiful  ideas  of  Oriental  religion. 
These  teachers  have  much  to  say  in  poetic  phrases 
about  ideas  exquisitely  nebulous,  and  conceptions 
which  are  so  vague  that  they  cannot  be  grasped  even 
by  the  minds  to  which  they  bring  rapture,  but  they 
have  nothing  to  say  about  the  place  of  woman  as 
that  place  is  taught  in  orthodox  Hinduism  or  as  that 
place  is  established  in  the  best  Hindu  society.  It  is 
both  farcical  and  pathetic  —  this  trailing  of  American 
women  after  these  Eastern  teachers,  and  the  quickest 
way  to  end  it  is  to  let  the  West  know  just  what  India 
has  to  teach  and  show  in  regard  to  the  place  and  rights 


HIS  CHIVALRY  l8l 

of  woman.  It  is  amazing  that  any  informed  man 
should  ever  leave  Jesus  for  any  other  teacher,  but  it 
is  tenfold  more  astounding  that  any  woman  in  her 
right  mind  should  ever  turn  her  back  on  the  one 
man  who  has  done  more  for  woman  than  all  the  other 
men  who  have  ever  lived.  Of  all  the  knights  who 
have  risked  their  lives  for  the  protection  and  honor 
of  womanhood  not  one  is  worthy  to  unloose  the 
latchet  of  the  shoes  of  this  gracious  and  gallant  Man 
of  Galilee.  How  boldly  he  spoke  on  the  subject  of 
divorce.  Woman's  position  in  Palestine  was  su- 
perior to  that  of  woman  in  surrounding  nations, 
but  even  in  Palestine  she  was  at  the  mercy  of  the 
man.  A  man  could  divorce  his  wife  when  he  chose, 
and  all  that  the  law  required  was  that  he  should 
write  out  a  statement  declaring  that  whereas  this 
woman  was  once  his  wife  she  was  now  his  wife 
no  longer. 

But  against  such  arbitrary  and  dangerous  au- 
thority the  chivalric  soul  of  Jesus  protested.  Men 
reminded  him  that  such  liberty  had  been  granted 
to  man  by  Moses,  but  he  immediately  replied  that 
Moses  would  never  have  allowed  any  such  license 
had  he  not  been  dealing  with  barbarians,  and  that 
no  matter  what  Moses  or  any  other  lawmaker  had 
ever  said  or  decreed,  the  law  of  God  is  that  a  man 
has  no  right  to  cast  a  woman  off  as  soon  as  he  is 
tired  of  her.  Marriage  is  ordained  by  God.  It 
lies  in  the  very  structure  and  formation  of  human 
nature.     The  union  is  not  one  which  can  be  dis- 


1 82  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

solved  by  Moses  or  anybody  else.  God  intends  that 
one  man  shall  live  with  one  woman  and  that  they 
shall  live  together  until  death  parts  them.  No 
greater  words  than  those  have  ever  been  spoken  on 
behalf  of  woman  since  the  world  began.  Even  now 
men's  hearts  are  too  hard  to  hear  and  heed  them, 
and  the  result  is  degradation,  heartbreak,  and  misery. 
High  above  all  the  clamorous  voices  of  the  world 
there  rings  the  clear  and  authoritative  tone  of  Jesus 
saying  to  men:  ''You  have  no  right  to  use  women 
and  toss  them  from  you.  Man  and  woman  belong 
together,  and  after  marriage  the  twain  are  one 
flesh." 

There  were  many  degraded  women  in  Palestine 
as  there  are  to-day  in  America.  Woman  being 
weaker  than  man  is  the  first  to  suffer  from  the  in- 
justices of  every  social  and  economic  system.  Our 
modern  world  has  created  a  dozen  places  for  women 
where  one  place  existed  in  the  olden  world.  Unable 
to  earn  their  livelihood  by  honest  means  women 
then,  as  women  now,  became  the  prey  of  brutal  men. 
And  men  then,  as  some  men  now,  insisted  on  two 
standards  of  morality, — one  for  men  and  one  for 
women,  the  second  standard  being  higher  than  the 
first.  One  of  these  degraded  women  was  caught 
one  day  by  a  lot  of  men  who  dragged  her  into  the 
presence  of  Jesus  just  to  see  what  he  would  say  and 
do.  According  to  the  Palestinian  law  a  woman 
guilty  of  adultery  could  be  stoned  to  death.  As 
soon  as  the  men  had  made  their  accusation,  Jesus 


HIS  CHIVALRY  1 83 

paused  a  moment  and  then  said,  ^*  The  man  among 
you  who  has  not  committed  the  same  sin  may  throw 
the  first  stone."  Not  a  stone  was  lifted.  No  one 
said  a  word.  Those  who  were  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  crowd  one  by  one  disappeared.  By  and  by 
they  all  had  gone.  All  had  slunk  away  like  curs. 
Woman  is  not  to  be  condemned  and  man  let  go  free. 
In  the  scales  of  God's  eternal  justice  a  woman's  sin 
is  not  heavier  than  that  of  a  man.  Here  is  a  teacher 
who  does  not  hesitate  to  defend  the  rights  of  woman 
even  though  by  so  doing  he  incurs  the  deadly  hatred 
of  all  foul-hearted  men.  Even  women  of  the  street 
shall  not  be  denied  the  privilege  of  repentance,  for 
they  are  capable  of  remorse,  and  may  long  to  find 
their  way  back  to  the  Father's  house.  A  woman 
has  a  mind,  a  conscience,  a  soul,  even  though  she 
lives  in  Samaria  and  has  broken  the  moral  law,  and 
is  worthy  of  careful  instruction  at  the  hands  of  the 
greatest  of  teachers.  What  a  piece  of  gallantry  it 
was  —  that  conversation  at  Jacob's  well ! 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  knight  who  is  a  knight  in- 
deed. The  mediaeval  knight  went  forth  seeking  for 
adventures:  our  knight  of  Palestine  went  forth  in 
search  of  forlorn  and  friendless  human  beings. 
The  knight  of  France  and  Germany  was  clad  in 
metal,  this  knight  of  Nazareth  had  no  protection 
but  the  white  innocence  of  an  unspoiled  heart.  His 
was  the  skill  of  a  physician  and  not  that  of  a  soldier. 
His  was  the  prowess  of  a  friend  and  brother  and  not 
that  of  a  warrior  fighting  to  lay  his  antagonist  in  the 


1 84  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

dust.  He  had  all  the  graces  and  virtues  of  mediaeval 
chivalry  and  none  of  its  superficiality  or  its  foibles. 
He  had  the  nerve,  the  mettle,  and  the  intrepidity  of 
the  bravest  of  the  knights,  and  along  with  this  he 
had  a  sweet  winsomeness,  a  divine  graciousness 
which  history  cannot  match.  Many  a  knight  pro- 
tected the  distressed  and  maintained  the  right  but 
failed  to  live  the  stainless  life.  This  prince  of 
knights,  this  king  of  all  the  hosts  of  chivalry,  con- 
quered on  every  field  and  came  off  without  a  stain. 

He  liked  people.  He  was  interested  in  human 
beings.  He  loved  a  crowd.  The  populace  appealed 
to  him.  The  masses  were  dear  to  his  heart.  Igno- 
rant people  attracted  him.  Bewildered  and  mis- 
taken people  had  a  fascination  for  him.  Wicked 
people  had  a  place  in  his  heart.  He  could  not  look 
at  a  great  crowd  without  feeling  the  tragedy  of  human 
life  and  crying  out:  "Come  unto  me!  Come  unto 
me!"  His  invitations  were  always  generous.  They 
were  wide  enough  to  cover  all.  He  always  said  that 
no  man  who  came  would  ever  be  cast  out. 

In  Jesus  we  have  a  revelation  of  the  heart  of  God. 
In  speaking  of  the  chivalry  of  this  man  of  Nazareth 
I  have  been  speaking  of  the  chivalry  of  the  Eternal. 
God  is  knightly  in  His  disposition,  chivalric  in  His 
temper.  It  is  His  work  from  all  eternity  to  protect 
the  weak,  maintain  the  right,  and  live  a  stainless  life. 
His  heart  goes  out  unceasingly  toward  the  weak, 
the  helpless,  and  those  who  have  no  friend.  If  you 
are  conscious  of  your  weakness,  cry  out  to  Him,  for 


HIS  CHIVALRY  185 

He  is  swift  to  answer  such  a  cry.  If  you  feel  some- 
times absolutely  helpless,  altogether  forlorn  and 
forsaken,  do  not  despair,  for  the  heart  of  Jesus  is  the 
heart  which  beats  in  and  behind  all  this  world,  and 
you  can  never  be  forsaken  so  long  as  God  is  God. 
In  your  moments  of  depression  and  in  the  days 
when  the  world  seems  cold  and  cruel,  think  of  the 
chivalric  God,  whose  heart  beats  in  sympathy  with 
weakness,  and  who  goes  out  with  alacrity  and  with 
gladness  to  meet  every  soul  in  need  of  succor. 


XV 
THE   FIRMNESS   OF   JESUS 


XV 

THE  FIRMNESS   OF  JESUS 

"Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan." 

—  Matthew  xvi  :  23. 

Let  us  think  to-night  of  the  firmness  of  Jesus. 
Of  his  tenderness  we  think  often,  and  also  of  his 
gentleness  and  graciousness.  To  these  lovely  graces 
the  heart  is  joyfully  responsive,  and  in  dwelling  upon 
them  we  are  likely  to  overlook  other  traits  no  less 
beautiful  and  praiseworthy.  Gentleness  of  nature 
is  not  a  virtue  but  a  defect  unless  it  is  accompanied 
by  tenacity  of  will.  Sweetness  of  disposition  is  not 
enough  to  make  a  man  useful  and  noble.  Along 
with  the  sweetness  there  must  go  strength,  and  under- 
neath the  moods  soft  as  velvet  there  must  lie  a  reso- 
luteness hard  as  steel. 

The  weakness  of  men  under  the  play  of  social 
forces  is  one  of  the  outstanding  tragedies  of  history. 
To  build  a  will  strong  enough  to  resist  and  control 
these  forces  is  the  central  and  crucial  task  of  educa- 
tion. It  is  an  ancient  adage  that  evil  companionships 
corrupt  good  morals.  All  men  are  more  or  less 
moulded  by  the  society  of  which  they  form  a  part. 
The  child  yields  readily  to  the  ideas  and  habits  of 
his  fellows,  and  no  matter  what  his  ancestry  may 

189 


190  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

have  been,  his  environment  if  corrupt  may  bring 
him  speedily  to  ruin.  This  impressionability  is  not 
a  trait  peculiar  to  childhood,  but  is  carried  with  us 
through  every  stage  of  life.  The  young  man  in 
college  is  powerfully  influenced  by  those  of  his 
classmates  who  are  the  nearest  to  him,  and  some- 
times a  few  bold,  masterful  spirits  will  set  the  pace 
for  a  thousand  men.  Business  men  are  as  sus- 
ceptible as  college  students  and  yield  in  crowds  to 
the  influence  of  a  few  dominating  minds.  The 
slavery  of  the  social  world  has  long  been  a  theme 
for  moralists  and  satirists.  He  is  indeed  a  strong 
character  who  dares  run  counter  to  the  traditions 
and  fashions  of  the  world  in  which  he  moves.  Even 
the  strongest  and  most  independent  often  bow  down 
before  standards  against  which  conscience  revolts 
and  submit  to  customs  against  which  the  heart 
protests.  Humanity  goes  in  crowds  and  droves, 
and  no  bondage  is  too  absurd  or  galling  to  be  sub- 
mitted to.  The  majority  of  mortals  are  not  strong 
enough  to  be  themselves:  they  become  echoes  of 
their  neighbors  and  walk  in  paths  marked  out  by 
others.  There  is  a  spirit  of  the  age  which  leaves  its 
impress  on  every  mind.  Even  the  mightiest  men 
cannot  free  themselves  entirely  from  it.  As  Lowell 
says,  "Every  man  is  the  prisoner  of  his  date." 
We  apologize  for  Cromwell  and  Calvin  and  Luther 
and  Hildebrand  and  Augustine,  saying,  ''Remember 
the  times  in  which  they  lived !" 

But  when  we  come  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth  we  are 


HIS  FIRMNESS  191 

in  the  presence  of  a  man  whom  nobody  swerved  or 
dominated,  who  is  so  free  from  the  bias  of  his  race 
and  so  clean  of  the  spirit  of  his  age  that  he  seems 
to  belong  to  all  races  and  all  ages.  He  is  not  the  Son 
of  David  but  the  Son  of  Man,  just  genuinely,  su- 
premely human.  He  is  not  a  citizen  of  the  first 
century  only,  but  the  contemporary  of  each  succeed- 
ing generation.  Immersed  in  an  ocean  of  mighty 
forces  which  beat  upon  him  furiously  through  every 
hour  of  his  career,  he  resisted  them  all  successfully 
by  the  indomitable  energy  of  a  victorious  will,  living 
a  life  unique  in  its  beauty  and  achieving  a  work 
unmarred  by  the  limitations  either  of  time  or  place. 
That  he  was  not  insensible  to  the  dominant  forces 
of  his  time,  he  himself  has  told  us  in  the  story  of  the 
temptation.  His  countrymen  had  formed  definite 
ideas  of  the  Messiah.  He  was  to  be  a  wonder  worker 
and  the  manifestations  of  his  power  were  to  be 
spectacular  and  overwhelming.  He  was  to  trample 
opposing  forces  under  his  feet  and  make  Palestine 
the  centre  of  the  world.  This  was  the  dream,  this 
was  the  expectation.  The  best  men  expected  this, 
as  did  also  the  worst  men.  It  is  a  dangerous  thing 
to  baffle  popular  expectations.  It  is  almost  cruel 
to  extinguish  the  fire  of  a  nation's  hope.  Good  and 
great  men  have  found  no  difficulty  in  every  land  and 
generation  in  bringing  themselves  to  yield,  at  least 
up  to  a  certain  point,  to  the  wishes  and  demands 
of  their  countrymen.  It  all  seems  plausible  enough. 
The  argument  is  familiar,  for  we  have  heard  it  even 


192  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

in  the  present  generation.  Who  is  a  man  that  he 
should  set  himself  against  the  expressed  wish  of  a 
nation?  Is  it  not  through  the  people  that  God 
makes  his  wishes  known,  and  what  is  it  but  egotism 
or  insanity  which  would  lead  an  individual  to  set  his 
judgment  against  the  judgment  of  the  people  ?  This 
is  the  argument  whose  sharp  edge  many  a  leader 
has  felt,  and  Jesus  of  Nazareth  felt  it  too.  Wherever 
he  went  he  heard  the  people  clamoring  for  a  king,  a 
king  who  should  rise  to  supremacy  over  the  wrecked 
empire  of  Caesar.  The  nation  was  ripe  for  revolu- 
tion. A  word  from  him  would,  like  a  spark,  have 
kindled  a  mighty  conflagration.  Expectations  had 
been  built  up  by  men  anointed  by  Jehovah,  and  these 
expectations  were  glowing  hot,  and  how  could  Jesus 
hope  to  win  the  attention  of  his  people  or  control 
the  current  of  their  life  unless  he  fell  in  with  their 
ideals  and  attempted  to  carry  out  the  program  on 
which  their  hearts  were  set  ?  It  was  a  great  tempta- 
tion, so  terrific  that  he  told  his  apostles  all  about  it. 
He  assured  them  that  in  this  temptation  he  had  been 
wrestling  with  the  very  prince  of  infernal  powers, 
but  that  notwithstanding  repeated  assaults  he  had 
come  out  of  the  conflict  victorious.  In  choosing  the 
road  which  led  to  supremacy  by  way  of  Gethsem- 
ane  and  Golgotha,  he  renounced  the  ideals  of  his 
countrymen  and  disappointed  their  dearest  expecta- 
tions, but  so  firm  was  he  that  the  hosts  of  hell  speak- 
ing through  God's  chosen  people  could  not  move 
him  from  his  place.    The  nation  hurled  itself  with 


HIS  FIRMNESS  1 93 

frantic  force  against  him,  but  he  did  not  budge. 
He  was  the  Rock  of  Ages. 

When  we  study  his  Hfe  with  attentive  eyes  we  see 
it  was  one  long  resistance  to  the  forces  of  his  age. 
He  was  a  patriot,  but  he  could  not  go  with  his 
countrymen  in  any  of  their  patriotic  programs  or 
expectations.  He  was  a  churchman,  but  he  could 
not  go  with  the  members  of  the  Jewish  church  in 
their  favorite  teachings  and  ceremonies.  The  re- 
ligious teachers  taught  doctrines  of  the  Sabbath 
which  he  could  not  accept.  They  presented  forms 
of  worship  which  he  could  not  submit  to.  They 
laid  down  lines  of  separation  which  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  observe.  It  is  not  easy  to  run  counter 
to  the  deep-seated  feelings  of  the  most  religious 
people  of  one's  day,  or  to  cut  across  the  grain  of 
the  prejudices  of  the  most  conscientious  men  in  the 
town.  There  were  many  reasons  why  Jesus  should 
have  conformed  to  the  ideas  and  customs  of  the 
church,  but  he  firmly  resisted  all  the  voices  which 
urged  him  toward  conformity,  standing  out  alone 
in  defiance  of  what  the  best  men  were  doing  and 
saying,  notwithstanding  his  nonconformity  seemed  to 
the  majority  impiety  and  to  many  blasphemy.  For  a 
godly  man  to  be  classed  among  blasphemers  is  one  of 
the  bitterest  experiences  which  the  heart  can  know. 
But  Jesus  paid  the  price  and  continued  firm. 

Men  of  light  and  leading  have  an  influence  sur- 
passing that  of  ordinary  men.  There  were  men  in 
Palestine  who  by  learning  and  position  had  won 


194  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

the  confidence  and  esteem  of  their  countrymen.  As 
leaders  and  teachers  of  the  people  they  had  their  plans 
and  systems  and  into  these  they  attempted  to  work 
this  young  man  from  Galilee.  They  recognized  in 
him  a  man  of  force,  and  to  manipulate  him  and 
make  use  of  him  was  a  natural  ambition.  No  man 
with  a  noble  cause  to  promote  will  lightly  antagonize 
the  most  influential  men  of  his  day.  He  will  bend 
to  them  so  far  as  he  is  able,  he  will  yield  to  their 
whims  and  caprices  so  far  as  conscience  will  permit, 
he  will  go  with  them  so  far  as  this  is  possible ;  but 
if  he  is  a  man  of  strength,  he  will  not  compromise  his 
principles,  and  he  will  never  jeopardize  the  victory 
of  his  cause  by  playing  into  the  hands  of  men  whose 
faces  are  toward  a  different  goal.  Jesus  could  not 
be  manipulated.  He  refused  to  be  used.  One 
party  after  another  tried  to  work  him  into  its  scheme, 
but  he  was  incorrigibly  intractable  and  went  on  his 
way  independent,  unshackled,  free.  All  the  seduc- 
tions offered  by  the  men  who  sat  on  thrones  could  not 
swerve  him  from  his  course,  and  although  his  stead- 
fastness made  him  enemies  and  finally  nailed  him 
to  the  cross,  he  was  everywhere  and  always  a  man 
who  could  not  be  moved. 

There  are  men  who  are  too  strong  to  be  manipu- 
lated by  their  foes,  but  in  the  hands  of  their  friends 
they  are  plastic  as  wax.  Jesus  could  not  be  manipu- 
lated even  by  his  friends.  He  had  many  friends 
in  Nazareth,  but  he  never  gave  up  his  principles 
to  please  them.     They  had   their  prejudices   and 


HIS  FIRMNESS  1 95 

superstitions,  but  he  never  surrendered  to  them. 
He  knew  their  bigotry  and  narrowness,  and  so  in  his 
opening  sermon  he  read  the  story  of  God's  com- 
passion on  a  Syrian  leper,  and  also  on  a  Sidonian 
widow.  His  sermon  raised  the  storm  which  he  had 
anticipated,  but  he  bore  the  fury  of  it  without 
flinching.  He  would  not  keep  silence  when  he 
knew  he  ought  to  speak,  nor  would  he  turn  aside 
from  the  path  he  knew  he  ought  to  travel  even  though 
by  sticking  to  the  path  he  made  himself  a  lifelong 
exile.  The  respect  and  good-will  of  neighbors  are 
sweet  indeed,  but  these  must  not  be  bought  by 
bending. 

But  probably  no  neighbor  in  Nazareth  was  ever 
so  near  to  Jesus'  heart  as  his  dear  friend  Simon 
Peter.  At  a  crisis  in  Jesus'  life  Peter  did  his  best 
to  dissuade  him  from  a  certain  course,  but  the  loyal 
and  loving  friend  succeeded  no  better  than  the  most 
hostile  Pharisee.  This  man  of  Nazareth  could  not 
be  moved  by  friend  or  foe.  It  was  his  Father's 
business  he  was  attending  to,  and  therefore  all 
efforts  to  draw  him  aside  were  made  in  vain.  "  Get 
thee  behind  me,  Satan,"  he  said  to  the  astonished 
Peter,  recognizing  in  him  the  same  evil  spirit  he 
had  contended  with  years  before  in  the  desert.  To 
defy  the  threats  of  powerful  enemies  is  hard,  but  to 
turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  expostulations  of  loving  friends 
is  harder  still.  Only  a  man  of  unconquerable  will 
is  equal  to  a  test  so  taxing.  Jesus  met  it  and  did  not 
fail. 


lo 


196  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

It  was  a  test  he  faced  in  his  own  home.  His 
brothers  did  not  understand  him.  Their  lack  of 
understanding  curtailed  their  sympathy  with  him. 
From  their  standpoint  he  often  did  the  injudicious 
thing,  and  refused  to  do  the  thing  which  would  have 
forwarded  his  reputation.  They  were  always  ready 
with  advice.  He  could  not  take  it.  They  urged 
him  to  go  to  Jerusalem  at  a  time  when  he  could  not 
go.  They  exhorted  him  to  go  home  at  a  time  when 
his  duty  was  to  be  somewhere  else.  Only  a  man 
who  has  been  driven  by  conscience  to  go  contrary 
to  the  wishes  of  members  of  his  own  family  can 
enter  into  the  experience  which  Jesus  suffered  or 
can  measure  the  strength  of  will  which  one  must 
have  to  resist  successfully  the  importunities  of 
love. 

This  test  of  will  power  reached  its  climax  in  Jesus' 
conflict  with  his  mother.  She  loved  him  and  he 
loved  her,  but  he  could  not  always  carry  out  her 
wishes.  There  comes  a  time  in  many  a  man's  life 
when  even  his  own  mother's  exhortations  must  go 
unheeded  in  order  to  obey  a  higher  call.  Such  an 
experience  came  to  Jesus.  It  was  a  sword  through 
Mary's  heart,  and  it  was  a  sword  also  through 
the  heart  of  Jesus.  The  painful  experience  in  the 
Temple  at  the  age  of  twelve  was  probably  not  the 
first  of  the  kind  in  Jesus'  life,  and  it  was  certainly 
not  the  last.  The  ties  to  Mary  were  not  so  deep  as 
the  ties  which  bound  Jesus  to  the  heavenly  Father, 
and  when  Mary's  wish  conflicted  with  the  Father's 


HIS  FIRMNESS  1 97 

will,  the  wish  of  the  woman  was  pushed  aside  to 
make  room  for  the  will  of  God. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  situation  which  is  distressing 
indeed.  The  most  tender  and  gracious  and  obliging 
of  men  is  compelled  to  resist  not  only  the  prayers  of 
his  countrymen  but  the  wishes  of  his  family  and 
friends.  He  stands  like  a  rock  in  the  midst  of  a 
troubled  sea,  and  all  its  billows  dash  themselves 
against  his  feet  in  vain.  There  was  something 
inflexible  in  his  will,  something  granitic  in  his  soul. 
When  he  found  a  man  whom  he  thought  worthy  to 
be  the  first  member  of  his  church  he  called  him 
"rock."  Are  we  to  infer  from  this  that  it  is  the  rock- 
like  quality  which  is  indispensable  in  the  building 
of  an  institution  which  shall  endure?  It  is  certain 
that  Jesus  loved  stability  in  others,  and  what  he 
loved  in  others  he  had  superabundantly  in  himself. 
Firm  himself,  he  loved  men  who  could  not  be 
moved.  Unconquerable  himself,  he  intrusted  his 
Gospel  to  men  who  would  endure  and  never  flinch. 
Men  who  having  put  their  hand  to  the  plough  looked 
back  were  not  men  he  could  make  use  of  in  the  saving 
of  a  world.  Men  who  started  to  build  a  tower  and 
then  gave  up  the  undertaking  were  only  objects  of 
mirth  and  mockery.  Salvation  could  not  be  offered 
to  any  one  who  did  not  endure  to  the  end. 

It  is  in  this  tenacity  of  will  that  we  find  an  indis- 
pensable element  of  Christian  character.  Men  are 
to  resist  exterior  forces  and  form  their  life  from 
within.    They  are  not  to  be  swayed  by  current 


198  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

opinion,  but  by  the  spirit  of  the  Eternal  in  their 
heart.  They  are  not  to  Hsten  to  the  voices  of  time, 
but  to  Hve  and  work  for  eternity.  We  Hke  this 
steadfastness  in  human  character,  and  we  also  crave 
it  in  God.  Men  have  always  loved  to  think  of  Him 
as  the  unchanging  and  the  unchangeable,  the  one 
*'with  whom  can  be  no  variation,  neither  shadow 
that  is  cast  by  turning."  And  what  we  desire  in  God 
we  find  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He  also  is  unchang- 
ing and  unchangeable  A  writer  of  the  first  century 
encourages  the  hearts  of  his  readers  by  reminding 
them  that  'Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday  and 
to-day,  yea  and  forever.'  Jesus  never  called  him- 
self the  Rock,  but  the  Christian  heart  soon  gave  him 
that  appellation,  and  few  hymns  have  proved  so 
popular  in  the  English-speaking  world  as  — 

"Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me! 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee." 

What  Jesus  was  in  Palestine  he  is  to-day  and  shall 
be  for  evermore.  All  his  promises  stand  unshaken, 
all  his  warnings  remain  unchanged.  His  attitude 
to  sinners  is  to-day  what  it  has  been  from  the  be- 
ginning and  what  it  will  be  to  the  end.  You  cannot 
discourage  him  by  your  ingratitude,  you  cannot 
make  him  other  than  he  is  by  your  disobedience. 
He  is  not  broken  down  by  human  folly  or  driven 
from  his  plan  by  human  perversity.  From  age  to 
age  he  is  about  his  Father's  business,  and  in  the 
midst  of  all  nations  and  kindreds  and  tongues  he 
goes  about  doing  good. 


XVI 
THE   GENEROSITY  OF   JESUS 


XVI 

THE   GENEROSITY  OF  JESUS 

"It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 

—  Acts  XX  :  ^s. 

Paul  is  speaking  farewell  words  to  the  officers  of 
the  church  to  which  he  has  given  more  time  and 
love  than  to  any  other.  He  reminds  them  of  things 
he  has  often  said  to  them  before,  and  in  closing  calls 
to  their  minds  one  of  the  most  illuminating  and  help- 
ful of  all  the  sayings  of  the  Master,  "It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive."  These  words 
express  with  rare  fulness  one  of  the  finest  of  the 
traits  of  Jesus,  his  generosity. 

If  one  were  asked  to  mention  a  half  dozen  key- 
words of  Christian  duty,  he  would  be  sure  to  place 
the  word  "give"  high  in  the  list.  One  cannot 
read  the  New  Testament  without  being  halted  by 
that  word,  for  it  occurs  repeatedly,  and  always  with 
an  emphasis  which  arrests  the  heart.  Indeed,  it  has 
been  often  claimed  that  the  Man  of  Galilee  is  wild 
and  reckless  in  his  theory  of  giving.  His  saying, 
"Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from  him  that 
would  borrow  of  thee  turn  not  thou  away,"  has  been 
to  many  a  mystery  and  an  offence.  But  the  exhor- 
tation need  stagger  no  one  if  it  is  remembered  that 

20I 


202  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

all  action  is  to  be  subjected  to  the  limitations  of 
love.  Mortals  are  urged  to  give  as  God  gives,  and 
God's  giving  is  always  fashioned  and  conditioned  by 
his  love.  He  does  not  give  to  every  man  the  pre- 
cise thing  which  the  man  asks  for.  He  says  to  all 
of  us  not  once  but  many  times,  *'No,"  "no,"  **no !" 
Love  can  never  give  where  giving  would  work 
hurt.  The  mother  cannot  give  the  razor  to  the 
little  girl  who  pleads  for  it,  nor  can  the  father  grant 
his  son  every  favor  which  he  asks.  The  man  half 
drunk  who  begs  for  a  quarter  on  the  street  comer 
must  be  refused,  and  in  every  case  the  petitioner 
must  be  dealt  with  according  to  the  requirements  of 
the  law  of  love.  But  to  write  down  all  the  considera- 
tions and  qualifications  which  must  be  taken  into 
account  in  dealing  with  a  world  which  is  always 
asking,  was  for  Jesus  a  plain  impossibility.  It  was 
better  to  throw  out  the  great  word  "give,"  un- 
qualified and  naked,  allowing  it  to  speak  unhindered 
to  the  human  heart,  as  a  word  which  holds  in  it  a 
revelation  of  the  mind  of  God.  St.  Luke  tells  us 
that  one  day  when  Jesus  was  unfolding  his  idea  of 
generosity,  he  said:  "Give,  and  it  shall  be  given 
unto  you ;  good  measure,  pressed  down,  and  shaken 
together,  and  running  over  shall  men  give  into  your 
bosom.  For  with  the  same  measure  that  ye  mete 
withal  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again."  To 
understand  this  you  must  have  been  some  time  on 
a  farm  and  watched  the  farmer  measure  grains  or 
small  fruits.    The  pressing  down  and  the  shaking 


HIS  GENEROSITY  203 

together  and  the  running  over  all  are  graphic  and 
meaningful  expressions  intended  to  picture  to  the 
mind  the  kind  of  measure  in  which  the  king  of 
heaven  takes  delight.  A  man  who  does  not  skimp 
or  dole  out  with  a  niggardly  hand  is,  says  Jesus,  a 
man  whom  the  universe  likes  and  blesses.  He  will 
lose  nothing  by  his  liberality,  for  the  world  is  con- 
structed on  a  generous  principle,  and  by  surrender- 
ing himself  to  the  divine  spirit  of  giving  he  will  be 
in  tune  with  the  Infinite,  and  shall  by  no  means  lose 
his  reward.  He  need  not  be  anxious  about  the 
precise  time  when  such  action  shall  bring  its  recom- 
pense. It  is  enough  to  go  forward,  giving  and  ask- 
ing nothing  in  return,  assured  that  somewhere  and 
somehow  his  recompense  shall  be  forthcoming. 
Let  him  therefore  when  he  makes  a  dinner  or  supper 
not  invite  simply  his  friends  or  his  brethren,  or  his 
kindred  or  his  rich  neighbors,  expecting  that  they 
will  invite  him  again.  Let  him  feast  the  poor,  the 
maimed,  the  lame,  the  blind,  men  who  cannot  give 
anything  in  return,  and  then  let  him  expect  from 
God  the  blessing  which  is  provided  for  the  generous 
heart.  That  blessing  may  not  come  in  all  its  ful- 
ness in  the  world  that  now  is,  but  there  will  be  a 
complete  recompense  at  the  resurrection  of  the  just. 
What  Jesus  said  to  his  disciples  he  says  to  all, 
"Freely  ye  have  received,  freely  give." 

Jesus'  dislike  of  the  stingy  and  parsimonious  heart 
comes  out  in  several  of  his  parables.  When  he 
speaks  of  Dives  in  his  fine  linen  at  his  banquet- 


204  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

table  while  the  sick  beggar  eats  crumbs  at  his  gate, 
we  can  feel  the  hot  flame  of  an  indignant  soul. 
When  he  tells  of  the  rich  man  who  thought  of  noth- 
ing but  his  overflowing  barns  and  his  own  selfish 
enjoyment,  there  is  a  scorn  in  his  language  which 
scorches.  In  the  parable  of  the  Hours  recorded  in  the 
twentieth  chapter  of  Matthew,  he  passes  condem- 
nation on  men  who  are  so  penurious  and  mean  that 
the  beauty  of  a  generous  act  does  not  appeal  to  them. 
The  owner  of  the  vineyard  pays  the  men  who  worked 
longest  all  that  he  agreed  to  pay  them,  and  then 
because  of  the  generosity  of  his  heart  he  pays  the 
men  who  have  worked  only  one  hour  as  much  as  if 
they  had  worked  an  entire  day.  He  does  this  be- 
cause he  wants  to  be  generous.  But  selfish  and 
mole-eyed  men  began  to  murmur.  An  act  that 
should  have  charmed  them  by  its  loveliness  excited 
only  their  envy  and  ill-natured  grumblings.  The 
story  is  told  in  a  way  which  reveals  clearly  what 
Jesus  thinks  of  a  man  who  is  generous.  Where  in 
the  New  Testament  will  you  find  more  exuberant 
praise  than  that  which  he  lavishes  upon  the  woman 
who  poured  four  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  perfume 
on  his  head  and  feet  ?  Miserly  souls  near  him  were 
offended  by  such  extravagance,  but  he  liked  it.  He 
appreciated  the  lavish  expenditures  of  love.  When 
he  sees  a  poor  widow  throwing  her  two  bits  of  cop- 
per into  the  treasury  in  the  temple,  all  the  money 
she  had  in  the  world,  he  does  not  criticise  her  for 
doing  a  foolish  thing  as  most  of  us  would  have  done, 


HIS  GENEROSITY  205 

but  he  cries  out  in  a  shout  which  has  in  it  the  music 
of  a  hallelujah,  "She  has  given  more  than  they 
all."  In  a  world  so  filled  with  grudging  and  close- 
fisted  men,  it  cheered  his  great  heart  to  see  now 
and  then  a  person  who  had  mastered  the  divine  art 
of  giving.  He  liked  givers  because  he  himself  was 
always  giving. 

When  he  said  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive  he  was  speaking  from  personal  experience. 
He  had  not  read  that  in  a  book.  He  had  found  it 
out  in  life.  When  he  urged  men  to  give  freely, 
abundantly,  lavishly,  gladly,  continually,  he  was 
only  preaching  what  he  himself  practised.  He  had 
no  money  to  give,  but  he  gave  without  stint  what 
he  had.  He  had  time  and  he  gave  it.  The  golden 
hours  were  his  and  he  gave  them.  He  gave  them 
all.  So  recklessly  did  he  give  them  that  in  order 
to  find  time  to  pray  it  was  necessary  to  use  hours 
when  other  men  were  sleeping.  He  had  strength 
and  he  gave  it  with  a  liberality  which  astonished 
and  alarmed  his  friends.  He  poured  out  his  energy 
to  the  last  ounce.  At  one  time  we  see  him  seated, 
exhausted,  on  the  curbing  of  Jacob's  well;  at  an- 
other time  we  see  him  falling  asleep  as  soon  as  his 
head  touched  the  pillow  on  the  little  boat  which 
was  carrying  him  back  to  Capernaum.  When  on 
the  last  day  of  his  life  they  laid  a  beam  of  timber 
upon  his  shoulder  he  staggered  under  it  and  then 
fell,  so  completely  had  he  been  exhausted  by  the 
arduous  labors  of  the  preceding  months  and  years. 


i^ 


206  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

He  saved  others  but  himself  he  did  not  know  how 
to  save.  He  had  thought  and  he  gave  it.  He  had 
ideas  and  he  scattered  them.  He  had  truth  and  he 
shared  it  with  men.  Behold  a  sower  goes  forth  to 
sow!  It  is  Jesus.  Look  at  him.  Watch  the 
swing  of  that  arm.  What  a  generous  arm!  He 
scatters  the  seed  upon  the  beaten  path.  No  matter. 
He  scatters  the  seed  on  the  soil  that  is  rocky.  What 
of  it?  He  scatters  the  seed  in  brier  patches  and 
thorny  corners.  He  does  not  mind  that.  The  seed 
is  abundant,  and  he  will  scatter  it  with  a  prodigal 
hand,  hoping  that  some  of  it  will  find  the  soil  which 
is  fertile  and  which  will  bring  forth  a  harvest  to  make 
glad  the  heart  of  God.  Many  a  teacher  has  saved 
his  best  ideas  for  a  chosen  few.  Jesus  scattered  his 
broadcast.  He  had  often  ignorant  and  prejudiced 
and  unresponsive  hearers,  but  he  threw  his  pearls 
by  the  handful  wherever  he  went.  What  glorious 
ideas  he  scattered  over  the  crowds  of  Galilean 
farmers,  what  heavenly  truths  he  unfolded  to  men 
and  women  of  whom  the  world  took  no  notice ! 

Never  was  a  teacher  such  a  spendthrift  in 
the  squandering  of  ideas,  never  did  a  great  thinker 
pour  out  his  treasures  in  such  wild  and  immeasurable 
profusion.  Freely  he  had  received,  and  therefore 
freely  he  gave.  It  was  not  merely  the  work  of  the 
intellect,  but  also  the  blood  of  the  heart  which  he 
gave.  His  affection  toward  men  flowed  in  a  stream 
constant  and  full.  His  sympathy  covered  all  classes, 
and  no  individual,  however  low  and  despised,  ever 


HIS  GENEROSITY  207 

appealed  to  him  in  vain.  Blind  men  on  hearing  of 
his  approach  lined  themselves  along  the  road  cry- 
ing as  he  passed,  "Have  mercy  also  on  us."  Lepers 
who  were  counted  unclean  and  treated  worse  than 
dogs  ventured  to  push  their  way  into  his  presence 
and  ask  for  a  healing  touch.  Samaritans,  the  very 
offscourings  of  the  world  in  the  estimation  of  the 
orthodox  Jew,  knew  that  in  this  new  rabbi  they 
had  a  benefactor  and  friend.  When  he  drove  the 
traders  out  of  the  Temple  it  was  the  blind  and  the 
lame  who  came  to  him,  knowing  that  they  would  not 
be  cast  away.  Sympathy  eats  up  the  blood  of  the 
nerves,  and  he  who  sympathizes  draws  heavily  on 
the  fountains  of  energy.  This  Jesus  always  did. 
He  was  a  man  with  a  loving  heart.  He  loved  both 
his  friends  and  his  enemies.  He  loved  them  at  the 
beginning  and  he  loved  them  to  the  end.  The  love 
which  he  lavished  upon  his  disciples  purified  them 
and  bound  them  to  him  with  bonds  which  nothing 
could  break.  But  his  love  went  out  also  to  those 
who  hated  him  and  schemed  to  bring  about  his 
death.  "Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do,"  it  is  in  such  a  prayer  that  the  loving 
heart  of  Jesus  is  clearly  revealed.  He  poured  out 
his  love  with  a  generosity  which  reminded  men  of 
the  generosity  of  God.  Having  given  time  and 
strength  and  thought  and  sympathy  and  love,  he 
finally  gave  up  his  life.  More  than  this  can  no  man 
give.  He  was  not  an  unwilling  victim  of  circum- 
stances, or  the  helpless  prey  of  ungovernable  politi- 


208  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

cal  forces,  or  a  martyr  like  Caesar,  or  William  the 
Silent,  or  Lincoln.  He  gave  his  life  consciously  and 
deliberately.  It  was  not  snatched  from  him  by 
accident  or  fate,  but  freely  surrendered  by  a  heart 
willing  to  pay  the  great  price.  Again  and  again  he 
endeavored  to  make  this  plain.  "I  have  power  to 
lay  down  my  life,"  he  said,  "and  I  have  power  to 
take  it  again."  It  was  his  conviction  from  the 
beginning  that  he  came  into  the  world  to  minister 
to  men's  needs,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for 
many.  It  was  only  by  the  giving  of  his  life  that  he 
could  soften  men's  hearts  and  bring  a  lost  world 
back  to  the  Father's  house. 

This,  then,  was  the  earthly  career  of  Jesus  —  one 
continuous  manifestation  of  generous  and  bound- 
less love.  In  his  character  we  see  not  only  what  is 
possible  for  man  to  be,  but  we  also  behold  a  revela- 
tion of  the  character  of  the  Eternal.  "He  that  hath 
seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father,"  so  said  Jesus  to 
those  who  were  the  nearest  to  him,  and  it  is  a  say- 
ing which  should  be  often  in  our  thoughts.  In 
studying  the  character  of  Jesus  we  get  light  not 
only  upon  the  possibilities  of  man,  but  also  upon  the 
disposition  and  the  will  of  God.  The  God  revealed 
by  Jesus  is  the  same  God  revealed  by  Nature.  The 
God  of  Nature  has  always  been  known  as  a  generous 
God.  The  days  and  nights,  the  sky  and  sea  and 
land,  the  changing  seasons,  all  bear  witness  to  His 
amazing  generosity.  He  is  prodigal  in  all  His  doings. 
He  is  lavish  in  all  His  benefactions.    He  scatters 


HIS  GENEROSITY  209 

good  things  with  the  bountiful  munificence  of  a 
King.  He  scatters  the  stars  not  in  paltry  thousands 
but  in  countless  millions.  He  creates  flowers  not  in 
numbers  which  we  can  count,  but  in  a  profusion 
which  confuses  and  confounds  the  imagination.  He 
always  gives  more  than  can  be  accepted.  He  throws 
sunsets  away  on  eyes  which  do  not  care  for  them. 
He  gives  fruit  trees  more  blossoms  than  the  trees 
can  use.  At  every  feast  which  He  spreads  there  are 
fragments  remaining  filling  twelve  baskets.  He  is  a 
munificent,  free-handed,  bountiful,  and  extravagant 
God. 

He  runs  constantly  to  profusion  and  exuberance 
and  overflowing  plenty.  He  fills  the  measure, 
presses  it  down,  shakes  it  together,  and  causes  it  to 
run  over.  The  measure  is  full  of  beauty  apparently 
going  to  waste.  He  breaks  the  alabaster  box 
upon  our  head  every  day  we  live.  He  spreads  a 
table  before  us.  He  makes  our  cup  run  over.  There 
are  a  thousand  toothsome  things  to  eat,  and  a  thou- 
sand lovely  things  to  see,  and  a  thousand  exquisite 
pleasures  to  experience,  and  a  thousand  sublime 
truths  to  learn,  and  a  thousand  good  opportunities 
to  seize  —  more  than  we  can  ever  make  use  of  in 
the  short  span  of  life  allowed  us.  In  the  realm  of 
nature  He  is  assuredly  a  lavish  and  bewilderingly 
bounteous  God,  and  what  He  is  in  the  world  of 
nature  He  is  likewise  in  the  realm  of  the  spirit. 
Jesus  says,  **Ask  and  ye  shall  receive."  Do  not 
hesitate  to  do  it.     No  matter  who  you  are,  you  may 


2IO  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

do  it.  "For  every  one  that  asketh,  receiveth/'  It 
is  an  eternal  principle,  deep-seated  in  creation  and 
deep-rooted  in  the  heart  of  God,  that  gifts  rich  and 
royal  may  be  had  for  the  asking.  It  is  the  purpose 
of  the  Christian  religion  to  bring  us  to  a  God  who  is 
willing  to  give  us  above  what  we  are  willing  to  ask 
or  able  to  think.  The  generosity  of  Jesus  is  in- 
tended to  remind  us  of  the  measureless  beneficence 
of  the  all-Father.  His  message  thrills  with  the 
thought  that  we  constantly  get  not  what  we  earn 
or  what  we  deserve,  but  what  an  ungrudging  and 
open-handed  God  is  delighted  to  give. 

If  you  ask  why  was  Jesus  generous,  the  answer 
is,  God  is  love.  When  was  love  anything  but 
liberal?  When  has  love  ever  dealt  out  good  things 
with  a  scant  and  skimping  and  miserly  hand? 
When  Peter  suggested  a  certain  number  as  being 
enough  to  indicate  the  limits  of  forgiveness,  Jesus 
told  him  not  to  count  at  all.  Love  never  counts. 
When  did  a  mother  ever  count  the  number  of  times 
she  kissed  her  baby,  and  when  did  a  friend  ever 
catalogue  the  number  of  favors  toward  his  friend,  or 
when  did  a  parent  ever  make  a  list  of  all  the  good 
things  he  gave  his  children?  Love  never  counts. 
It  is  the  nature  of  love  to  give,  and  to  keep  on 
giving,  and  then  to  devise  new  ways  of  larger  giving, 
and  to  imagine  still  additional  needs  which  may  be 
supplied.  Speaking  to  fathers,  Jesus  says:  ''What 
man  is  there  of  you,  who,  if  his  son  shall  ask  him 
for  a  loaf,  will  give  him  a  stone;   or  if  he  shall  ask 


HIS   GENEROSITY  21 1 

for  a  fish,  will  he  give  him  a  serpent?  If  ye  then 
being  evil  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your 
children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father  which 
is  in  heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  him  ?" 
If  you  are  ever  tempted  to  question  the  generosity 
of  the  heart  of  God,  look  at  Jesus!  Once  in  the 
world's  history  there  has  lived  a  man  whose  supreme 
joy  was  ungrudging  giving.  He  knew  as  no  other 
man  has  ever  known  how  much  more  blessed  it  is 
to  give  than  to  receive.  He  lived  not  to  be  minis- 
tered unto,  but  to  minister;  not  to  receive,  but  to 
give ;  not  to  save  his  life,  but  to  pour  it  out  for  others. 
If  generosity  so  great  has  appeared  in  Time,  it  must 
be  because  there  is  a  generous  heart  in  Eternity; 
if  a  grace  so  beautiful  has  blossomed  on  our  earth, 
we  have  a  right  to  expect  the  same  grace  in  heaven. 

"There's  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy, 

Like  the  wideness  of  the  sea: 
There's  a  kindness  in  his  justice, 

Which  is  more  than  liberty. 
There  is  welcome  for  the  sinner, 

And  more  graces  for  the  good; 
There  is  mercy  with  the  Saviour; 

There  is  healing  in  his  blood. 

"For  the  love  of  God  is  broader 

Than  the  measure  of  man's  mind; 
And  the  heart  of  the  Eternal 

Is  most  wonderfully  kind. 
If  our  love  were  but  more  simple, 

We  should  take  him  at  his  word; 
And  our  lives  would  be  all  sunshine 

In  the  sweetness  of  our  Lord." 


XVII 
THE  CANDOR   OF   JESUS 


XVII 

THE   CANDOR    OF    JESUS 

"If  it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you." 

—  John  xiv  :  2. 

The  word  "candor"  has  a  modern  sense.  In 
earlier  times  it  meant  whiteness  or  brightness,  coming 
as  it  does  from  the  old  Latin  word  candidus,  meaning 
"  white,"  the  word  from  which  we  get  our  word  "  can- 
didate," signifying  a  man  dressed  in  white,  because 
aspirants  for  office  in  ancient  Rome  always  dressed 
in  white  togas.  But  in  modern  speech  candor  is 
openness,  fairness,  outspokenness,  sincerity.  It  is  a 
rare  virtue,  one  of  the  most  winsome  of  all  the 
virtues.  Many  a  man  does  not  possess  it.  He  is 
taciturn,  reserved,  secretive.  He  keeps  the  door 
of  his  heart  shut.  When  he  says  a  thing  you  can- 
not tell  how  much  he  means,  for  you  do  not  know 
the  extent  of  his  reservations.  When  he  does  a 
thing  you  cannot  tell  what  he  is  going  to  do  next, 
because  you  do  not  know  how  fully  his  act  has  em- 
bodied all  which  exists  in  his  heart.  He  gives  him- 
self fully  to  no  one.  He  is  the  man  with  the  barred 
lips  and  the  bolted  heart.  Such  a  man  may  be 
respected  and   even   admired,   but   he   cannot   be 

215 


2l6  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

loved.  Jesus  was  loved.  Men  loved  him  so  in- 
tensely they  were  willing  to  die  for  him.  One  rea- 
son was  that  he  was  a  man  with  his  heart  open. 

One  obtains  a  hint  of  a  man's  disposition  by 
noting  the  men  whom  he  admires  and  praises.  The 
trait  which  one  sincerely  likes  to  see  in  others  is 
likely  to  be  a  feature  of  his  own  character.  John 
in  his  Gospel  tells  us  of  a  eulogy  which  Jesus  passed 
one  day  upon  a  man  named  Nathaniel.  Nathaniel 
was  a  citizen  of  a  small  Galilean  village,  Cana, 
situated  not  far  from  Nazareth.  As  soon  as  Philip 
had  gotten  a  little  acquainted  with  Jesus  he  was 
desirous  of  bringing  Jesus  and  his  friend  Nathaniel 
together.  Seeking  Nathaniel  he  said  enthusiastically, 
*'We  have  found  him!"  to  which  came  back  the 
frigid  answer,  *'Can  there  any  good  thing  come 
out  of  Nazareth?"  The  two  villages,  Cana  and 
Nazareth,  were  close  together,  and  as  frequently 
happens  neither  village  saw  much  good  in  its  neigh- 
bor. Great  cities  have  been  known  to  be  bitterly 
jealous  of  one  another,  and  this  rivalry  is  sometimes 
more  intense  in  the  lives  of  competing  towns.  Na- 
thaniel had  a  deep-seated  contempt  for  dingy  little 
Nazareth,  and  all  that  was  in  his  heart  came  out  in 
the  cynical  question,  *'Can  there  come  any  good 
thing  out  of  Nazareth?"  He  was  nothing  if  not 
frank.  His  friend,  not  at  all  daunted,  mildly  said, 
*'  Come  and  see."  Whereupon  the  cynic  immediately 
obeyed.  He  had  his  presuppositions,  but  he  would 
not  be  enslaved  by  them.    He  had  his  prejudices. 


HIS  CANDOR  217 

but  he  would  not  be  held  back  by  them.  It  was 
only  reasonable  that  he  should  act  on  his  friend's 
suggestion,  and  this  he  forthwith  did.  He  was  will- 
ing to  investigate  for  himself.  He  had  an  open 
mind,  an  ingenuous  heart.  Jesus  had  been  struck 
by  his  frank  and  noble  face  not  long  before  when 
he  had  seen  him  praying  under  a  fig  tree.  As  soon 
as  Jesus  sees  him  coming  toward  him  he  exclaims 
in  a  tone  musical  with  praise,  ''Behold  an  Israelite 
indeed  in  whom  is  no  guile."  This  was  the  sort  of 
man  which  won  at  once  the  heart  of  Jesus.  There 
was  no  craft  nor  cunning  in  him,  no  duplicity  nor 
deceit ;  he  was  a  man  of  frank  sincerity,  and  Jesus' 
heart  immediately  goes  out  to  him,  assuring  him 
that  over  his  open  soul  there  is  going  to  be  an  open 
heaven.  Outspoken  and  frank  himself,  Jesus  was 
en  rapport  with  souls  which  were  free  from  guile. 
And  here  we  find  one  of  the  reasons  why  Jesus 
always  extolled  the  disposition  of  a  child.  Without 
the  child  heart  no  man  can  enter  heaven.  And 
why?  Because  the  child  heart  is  always  the  open 
heart.  Where  can  you  find  such  candor,  such 
beautiful  frankness,  such  surprising  and  sometimes 
discomfiting  outspokenness  as  in  a  little  child?  He 
will  tell  you  just  what  he  thinks,  all  he  thinks,  noth- 
ing will  he  hold  back.  He  will  make  known  his 
feelings,  all  his  feelings,  and  will  melt  and  overcome 
your  heart  by  the  fulness  of  his  naive  self-revelation. 
One  of  the  reasons  why  Jesus  set  a  child  in  the 
midst  of  the  disciples,  saying,  "This  is  what  you 


2l8  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

ought  to  be,'^  is  because  a  little  child  is  the  embodi- 
ment and  personification  of  candor. 

A  man  reveals  himself  in  his  dislikes  as  truly  as 
in  his  prepossessions  and  praises.  Whom  did  Jesus 
most  dislike?  The  Pharisees.  They  were  hypo- 
crites. A  hypocrite  was  an  actor,  a  man  who  wore 
a  mask,  the  mask  representing  a  personality  other 
than  the  one  inside  of  it.  "Do  not  be  like  the 
actors,"  this  was  his  constant  exhortation,  and  he 
never  lost  an  opportunity  of  holding  up  the  hypo- 
crites to  contempt  and  scorn.  On  one  occasion  he 
faced  them  in  Jerusalem,  calling  them  to  their  face 
**  vipers."  It  was  a  harsh  word,  and  yet  it  expressed 
the  inmost  spirit  of  the  men  to  whom  it  was  applied. 
They  were  as  venomous  and  deadly  as  vipers.  It 
is  an  awful  thing  to  tarnish  the  name  of  God  and 
render  religion  odious,  and  to  poison  the  heart  of 
the  world.  And  yet  all  this  these  hypocrites  were 
doing,  and  to  the  guileless  heart  of  Jesus  there  were 
no  men  so  repulsive  and  deserving  of  scorching 
condemnation.  He  was  himself  so  genuine  and 
open-hearted  that  the  craft  of  these  treacherous 
actors  stirred  him  to  blazing  indignation. 

He  never  held  back  the  truth  when  it  was  time 
that  the  truth  should  be  spoken.  His  loving  heart 
told  him  when  the  hour  had  come.  At  the  marriage 
feast  in  Cana  he  said  to  his  mother  who  had  come 
with  imploring  eyes  and  pleading  tongue  asking 
him  to  help  the  host  out  of  the  distressing  predica- 
ment in  which  he  found  himself,  *' Woman,  what 


HIS  CANDOR  219 

have  I  to  do  with  thee?'^  It  had  been  predicted 
long  before  that  a  sword  was  to  pass  through  Mary's 
heart,  and  here  is  surely  one  of  the  times  when  the 
sword  passed  through.  The  time  has  come  when 
the  mother's  wishes  can  no  longer  be  allowed  to 
control  the  actions  of  the  son.  Her  importunate 
requests  can  no  longer  determine  the  course  of 
Jesus'  action.  The  old  days  in  Nazareth  are  for- 
ever gone,  and  a  new  epoch  in  Jesus'  life  has  dawned, 
and  in  this  larger  realm  the  mother  is  nothing  but 
a  woman  whose  thoughts  and  feelings  and  wishes 
must  be  subordinated  to  the  will  of  the  man  whom 
she  has  thus  far  called  her  son.  What  pain  Jesus 
suffered  in  speaking  thus  we  can  only  imagine.  But 
he  was  the  man  with  the  open  heart,  and  the  wound- 
ing word  had  to  be  spoken. 

The  Gospels  teem  with  illustrations  of  this  sur- 
prising and  daring  frankness.  One  day  in  talking 
with  some  Sadducees  —  representatives  of  the  aristo- 
cratic and  influential  classes  of  Palestine  —  he  told 
them  bluntly  that  they  were  always  falling  into 
error  because  they  were  so  ignorant.  They  were 
ignorant  both  of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the  power  of 
God.  It  was  a  needed  word,  for  people  who  know 
little  and  think  they  know  much  are  sometimes 
helped  by  having  their  attention  called  to  the  limi- 
tations of  their  knowledge;  but  to  give  such  repri- 
mand is  not  an  easy  thing  to  do.  It  was  by  his 
outspokenness  that  Jesus  attempted  to  cure  some 
of  the  infirmities  of  men. 


220  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

His  love  of  fairness  comes  out  clearly  in  his  warn- 
ings both  to  the  twelve  and  to  all  who  wanted  to  be 
numbered  among  his  followers.  He  will  hold  back 
nothing.  The  whole  terrible  truth  must  be  told. 
No  man  shall  ever  follow  him  without  first  knowing 
what  risks  and  dangers  discipleship  involves.  Read 
the  tenth  chapter  of  Matthew  as  a  shining  illustra- 
tion of  his  candor.  He  wants  the  twelve  to  do  his 
work,  but  before  they  start  they  shall  know  what 
sort  of  experiences  they  may  reasonably  expect. 
"Behold  I  send  you  forth  as  sheep  in  the  midst  of 
wolves,"  a  figure  which  meant  much  to  the  men 
addressed  who  knew  both  sheep  and  wolves.  Be- 
ginning thus  he  goes  on  to  paint  a  picture  black 
enough  to  daunt  the  heart  of  the  bravest,  and  the 
only  encouragement  he  has  to  give  them  for  facing 
such  awful  dangers  is  the  promise  that  he  will  con- 
fess them  at  last  before  his  Father  in  heaven.  No 
disciple  shall  ever  say  to  him,  "I  did  not  know 
what  it  meant!"  or  shall  ever  chide  him  with  the 
question,  *'Why  did  you  not  tell  me?"  When  men 
came  rushing  to  him  saying,  "  Master,  I  will  follow 
you,"  he  flashed  on  them  the  gloom  of  a  dark  sen- 
tence, unwilling  to  accept  the  allegiance  of  any  one, 
even  in  times  when  he  most  needed  support,  without 
having  first  revealed  to  the  volunteer  the  full  sig- 
nificance of  a  place  in  his  ranks.  Men's  heads  were 
filled  with  dreams  of  supremacy  and  sovereignty 
and  glory,  and  more  than  one  heart  was  chilled  by 
the  searching  question,  ''Are  you  able  to  drink  the 


HIS  CANDOR  221 

cup?"  His  candor  reduced  the  number  of  his  fol- 
lowers, but  it  was  just  like  him  to  hold  back  nothing 
which  men  had  a  right  to  know. 

But  it  is  in  his  confessions  that  his  candor  reaches 
its  climax.  Among  his  confessions  there  are  three 
which  must  here  have  our  attention.  He  admits 
without  hesitation  that  there  was  a  limitation  of  his 
authority.  One  day  a  man  interrupted  him  with 
the  cry,  "Speak  to  my  brother  that  he  divide  the 
inheritance  with  me,"  and  the  reply  was,  *'Man, 
who  made  me  a  judge  or  a  divider  over  you?" 
There  was  a  realm  then  in  which  Jesus  was  not 
ordained  to  act.  This  was  a  surprising  confession 
for  the  Messiah  to  make.  It  had  been  the  dream 
of  the  prophets  that  the  Messiah  should  have  au- 
thority over  all  the  kingdoms  of  life,  that  every 
form  of  injustice  should  be  trampled  under  his  feet. 
The  nation  had  long  pictured  a  king  who  should 
put  an  end  to  the  cruel  inequalities  with  which  the 
world  was  cursed,  and  measure  out  justice  with  an 
even  hand.  And  now  the  Messiah  deliberately  turns 
his  back  on  a  man  who  is  pleading  for  justice,  saying 
that  into  that  realm  he  cannot  now  enter.  Only  a 
strong  man  is  brave  enough  to  disappoint  his  friends 
by  candidly  admitting  that  it  is  impossible  for  him 
to  do  what  they  have  expected  of  him.  Not  only 
did  Jesus  confess  a  limitation  of  his  authority,  but 
also  of  his  power.  When  two  of  his  disciples  asked 
for  the  chief  places  in  the  new  kingdom,  he  frankly 
told  them  that  he  did  not  have  the  power  to  select 


222  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

his  own  prime  ministers,  because  all  such  matters 
were  hidden  in  the  deep  counsels  of  God. 

More  surprising  was  his  confession  of  ignorance. 
An  ignorant  Messiah  was  to  the  pious  and  instructed 
Hebrew  an  impossible  conception.  The  Messiah 
was  not  only  to  be  abLe  to  do  everything,  he  was 
also  to  know  everything.  The  tradition  was  firmly 
lodged  in  the  hearts  of  the  Samaritans  as  well  as 
of  the  Jews,  as  we  see  in  the  words  of  the  woman  of 
Samaria,  "I  know  that  Messiah  cometh:  when  he  is 
come  he  will  tell  us  all  things."  But  Jesus  frankly 
admitted  that  there  were  things  which  he  did  not 
know.  For  instance,  one  day  he  was  talking  in 
graphic  phrase  about  the  end  of  the  world.  He 
spoke  of  it  so  definitely  and  positively  that  it  was  a 
natural  inference  that  he  knew  just  when  it  would 
take  place.  To  the  amazement  of  his  hearers  he 
said,  "Of  that  day  and  that  hour  knoweth  no  man, 
no,  not  the  angels  which  are  in  heaven,  neither  the 
Son,  but  the  Father."  There  is  nothing  which  so 
weakens  the  authority  of  a  teacher  with  the  public 
as  the  discovery  of  his  ignorance  in  regard  to  a 
matter  on  which  it  is  generally  considered  his  busi- 
ness to  be  informed.  There  is  no  confession  which 
a  teacher  makes  so  reluctantly  and  with  such  hazards 
as  that  of  ignorance  on  a  point  which  lies  within  his 
province.  It  shatters  popular  confidence,  and  robs 
his  words  of  authority,  and  cripples  all  his  subse- 
quent work.  Candid,  indeed,  is  the  teacher  who 
confesses  his  ignorance.     Jesus  confessed  his.    He 


HIS  CANDOR  223 

knew  the  risks  and  he  took  them.  He  knew  his 
words  could  be  misconstrued  and  that  they  would 
become  to  thousands  a  stumbling-block,  but  he 
spoke  them. 

Again  and  yet  again  his  friends  and  followers, 
less  candid  than  their  Master,  have  shrunk  back 
from  his  bold  confession  and  have  watered  down 
his  words,  trying  to  make  them  mean  less  than 
they  carry  on  their  face.  Many  a  tricky  interpre- 
tation has  been  given  to  his  declaration  by  those 
who  have  not  been  willing  to  think  of  Jesus  as 
being  anything  but  omniscient,  and  have  feared 
that  men  if  once  told  of  one  deficiency  in  Jesus' 
knowledge  might  hesitate  to  give  him  the  fulness  of 
their  trust  and  refuse  to  bow  before  him  as  King  of 
kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  But  men  who  thus  try  to 
evade  the  plain  language  of  Scripture  are  not  candid. 
Let  us  be  thankful  that  Peter  was  frank  enough  to 
tell  Mark  just  what  Jesus  said,  and  that  Mark  was 
sincere  enough  to  write  down  just  what  Peter  re- 
ported, and  that  Matthew  in  a  book  written  espe- 
cially to  prove  that  Jesus  was  the  long-expected 
Messiah  and  King  of  Israel,  did  not  shrink  from 
writing  down  the  great  confession  of  Jesus'  igno- 
rance as  to  the  day  and  the  hour  of  the  end  of  the 
world.  The  New  Testament  is  like  its  hero,  glori- 
ously candid.  It  points  to  Jesus  saying,  ''This  is 
the  Messiah,  the  Son  of  God,"  and  then  it  tells  us 
that  men  spat  upon  him. 

Nothing  inspires  confidence  in  a  man  like  candor. 


224  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

If  a  man  is  frank  and  open  in  nine  points,  we  may 
safely  trust  him  in  the  tenth.  Jesus  makes  his 
candor  a  reason  why  his  disciples  ought  to  trust 
him  in  those  realms  of  thought  and  life  which  lie 
beyond  their  sight.  "In  my  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions,  if  it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told 
you."  Of  course  he  would.  It  was  his  nature  to 
tell  men  everything  it  was  necessary  for  them  to 
know.  He  would  not  allow  his  friends  to  go  on 
holding  delusions  when  a  word  from  him  would  set 
them  free.  These  men  had  in  them  an  instinctive 
belief  in  the  life  to  come.  Like  all  normal  and  un- 
spoiled men  they  believed  that  death  is  not  the  end. 
They  looked  forward  to  a  life  of  larger  scope  and 
rapture  than  any  which  this  world  can  know.  Jesus 
allowed  them  to  nourish  these  expectations.  He 
saw  the  direction  in  which  their  faces  all  were  set, 
and  he  did  not  tell  them  they  were  swayed  by  an 
illusion.  He  let  them  go  on  thinking  of  heaven, 
hoping  for  heaven,  working  for  heaven,  and  now 
that  the  end  of  his  earthly  life  has  come,  he  tells 
them  more  plainly  of  the  nature  of  this  vast  world 
just  beyond  the  shadow. 

Carry  this  thought  with  you  in  your  reading  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  it  will  give  you  fresh  confi- 
dence in  many  things  which  we  believe  about  Jesus. 
We  believe  that  he  was  sinless.  Why?  Because  of 
a  sentence  here  and  there  like,  "Which  one  of  you 
convinceth  me  of  sin?"  That  foundation  might 
prove  somewhat  precarious.     Shall  we  think  he  was 


HIS  CANDOR  225 

sinless  because  he  never  committed  a  sinful  act? 
But  how  do  you  know,  how  can  you  know,  about 
his  thoughts  and  feelings  and  motives,  and  what 
proof  have  you  that  his  motives  and  feelings  and 
thoughts  were  always  altogether  just  what  God 
would  have  them  to  be?  The  best  reason  we  have 
for  believing  in  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus  is  the  fact 
that  he  allowed  his  dearest  friends  to  think  that  he 
was.  There  is  in  all  his  talk  no  trace  of  regret  or 
hint  of  compunction,  or  suggestion  of  sorrow  for 
shortcoming  or  slightest  vestige  of  remorse.  He 
taught  other  men  to  think  of  themselves  as  sinners, 
he  asserted  plainly  that  the  human  heart  is  evil,  he 
told  his  disciples  that  every  time  they  prayed  they 
were  to  pray  to  be  forgiven,  but  he  never  speaks  or 
acts  as  though  he  himself  has  the  faintest  conscious- 
ness of  having  ever  done  anything  other  than  what 
was  pleasing  to  God.  This  is  remarkable,  unpar- 
alleled. All  the  saints  beat  their  breasts  saying, 
"  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  The  purer  the 
heart  the  lower  it  bows  before  infinite  holiness. 
Jesus  never  by  word  or  by  act  indicates  that  he  is 
conscious  of  falling  short  of  the  wishes  of  God.  If 
he  had  been,  would  he  not  have  said  so?  His  was 
the  open  heart.  Would  he  deceive  men  on  a  matter 
of  such  cardinal  moment?  Is  this  like  him  to  be 
conscious  of  transgression,  and  conscience-stricken 
because  of  his  sins  and  never  indicate  by  a  word 
that  he  like  the  disciples  must  pray  to  be  forgiven? 
They  thought  he  was  sinless.     Would  this  man  with 


226  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  open  heart  and  the  open  mouth  allow  his  dearest 
friends  to  be  deceived?  He  was  without  sin  even 
as  the  apostle  said  he  was.  We  are  sure  of  it  for 
the  reason  that  if  he  had  not  been  he  would  have 
told  us. 

On  his  candor,  then,  we  have  a  right  to  build  both 
for  time  and  eternity.  When  he  says  that  if  we  do 
not  repent  we  shall  perish,  and  that  only  those  who 
are  bom  from  above  enter  the  kingdom  of  light,  we 
have  every  reason  for  believing  that  these  statements 
are  true.  And  when  he  says  that  his  disciples  are 
going  to  do  greater  things  than  were  ever  done  in 
Palestine,  and  that  he  will  be  with  us  always  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world,  why  should  we  not  believe 
him? 

And  since  he  is  so  frank  and  open  with  us  why 
should  not  we  be  open-hearted  and  frank  with  him  ? 
If  he  tells  us  truly  the  things  in  his  heart,  why 
should  we  not  tell  him  truly  the  things  which  are  in 
our  hearts?  He  has  given  himself  to  us:  why  do 
we  not  give  ourselves  to  him? 


XVIII 
THE  ENTHUSIASM   OF   JESUS 


XVIII 

THE  ENTHUSIASM  OF  JESUS 

"I  came  to  cast  fire  upon  the  earth." 

—  Luke  xii :  49. 

Strange  to  say,  the  word  "  enthusiasm  "  does  not 
occur  in  our  English  New  Testament,  nor  is  it  to 
be  found  in  the  Greek  Testament ;  and  yet  the  New 
Testament  is  the  most  enthusiastic  of  all  books,  and 
Jesus  is  the  most  enthusiastic  of  all  men.  The  word 
"enthusiasm"  is  avoided,  and  for  a  reason.  In  the 
first  century  it  had  unsavory  associations.  Enthu- 
siasm in  the  Pagan  world  was  an  ecstasy,  or  divine 
possession.  An  enthusiast  was  one  who  was  in- 
spired or  possessed  by  a  god.  Often  the  enthusiast 
was  a  fanatic,  sometimes  he  was  a  madman.  The 
evangelists  and  apostles  did  not  Hke  the  word,  and 
so  they  kept  it  out  of  their  writings.  In  the  speech 
of  to-day,  enthusiasm  is  a  noble  word.  It  is  fervor 
of  mind,  ardency  of  spirit,  exaltation  of  soul.  It  is 
passion,  heat,  fire.  Though  the  word  is  absent,  the 
thing  itself  is  present.  Jesus  burns  with  fervent 
heat.  His  very  words  are  sparks  which  kindle 
conflagrations. 

When  a  boy  he  visited  Jerusalem  with  his  parents, 
and  slipping  one  day  into  the  Temple  to  hear  the 

229 


230  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

scholars  discussing  the  great  problems  of  religion, 
he  lost  himself.  He  forgot  what  day  of  the  week 
it  was,  and  what  hour  of  the  day  it  was.  His  father 
and  mother  and  brothers  and  sisters  and  friends 
all  passed  completely  from  his  mind.  He  plunged 
headlong  into  the  discussion  of  the  doctors,  gave 
himself  up  completely  to  the  subject  of  the  hour, 
allowed  himself  to  be  swept  along  on  the  tide  of 
thought  and  discussion,  until  all  at  once  his  mother's 
face  appeared  at  the  door  and  he  was  reminded  of 
the  place  he  had  left  vacant  in  the  caravan  which 
had  started  toward  Galilee.  In  this  temple  expe- 
rience we  see  a  nature  sensitive  and  impressionable, 
capable  of  being  heated  to  high  temperatures. 

When  as  a  young  man  of  thirty  he  next  appears 
before  us  we  see  him  at  the  river  Jordan  being  bap- 
tized by  the  mighty  preacher  John.  Immediately 
after  the  baptism,  St.  Mark  tells  us  he  was  "driven" 
by  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness.  The  word 
"driven"  has  in  it  a  significance  which  is  revealing. 
Jesus  is  so  full  of  feeling  after  the  experience  which 
came  to  him  in  his  baptism  that  he  cannot  linger 
near  the  homes  of  men,  but  must  at  once  rush  away 
into  unfrequented  and  desert  places  where  he  can 
meditate  upon  the  strange  thing  that  has  happened 
to  him,  and  ponder  the  steps  which  he  must  next 
take.  From  this  time  on  we  have  a  man  before  us 
who  is  being  driven.  Even  when  a  boy  he  used  a 
word  which  expressed  the  intensity  of  his  feeling, 
"  Do  you  not  know  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's 


HIS  ENTHUSIASM  23 1 

business?"  He  never  ceased  to  use  that  word 
"must."  They  wanted  him  to  stay  in  Capernaum, 
but  he  could  not  do  it.  "I  must  preach  the  gospel 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  to  the  other  cities  also." 
They  wanted  him  to  stay  away  from  Jerusalem, 
knowing  that  it  was  dangerous  there,  but  he  said : 
*'I  must  go  to  Jerusalem.  I  have  a  baptism  to  be 
baptized  with,  and  how  am  I  straitened  imtil  it  be 
accomplished  ?  "  He  felt  that  his  life  would  be  short 
and  so  he  kept  saying,  "I  must  work  the  works  of 
Him  that  sent  me  while  it  is  day :  the  night  cometh 
when  no  man  can  work." 

How  intense  his  life  was  we  can  see  in  what  is  told 
us  of  his  habit  of  praying.  He  was  always  praying. 
He  arose  early  in  the  morning  in  order  to  find  more 
time  to  pray,  he  stayed  up  late  at  night  in  order  to 
increase  the  hours  in  which  he  might  speak  to  God. 
Sometimes  he  did  not  go  to  bed  at  all,  remaining  all 
night  long  upon  some  hilltop  under  the  stars  pouring 
out  his  soul  to  God.  He  was  enthusiastic  in  prayer, 
and  therefore  he  was  zealous  in  work.  Men  were 
astounded  by  the  magnitude  of  his  labors.  Some- 
times he  did  not  take  time  to  eat.  Even  when  he 
went  away  for  a  season  of  relaxation  he  gave  himself 
up  to  the  crowds  which  pursued  him.  His  words 
have  in  them  an  energy  which  burns.  Again  and 
again  we  catch  expressions  in  which  we  can  feel 
his  great  heart  beating :  "I  have  not  found  so  great 
faith,  no,  not  in  Israel,"  "O  woman,  great  is 
thy    faith!"     "I    thank    thee,    O    Father!"     "O 


232  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  how  often!"  All  these  are 
out  of  the  throat  of  an  enthusiast,  a  man  surcharged 
with  feelmg.  At  the  distance  of  nineteen  hundred 
years  from  the  day  on  which  they  were  spoken  our 
heart  leaps  when  we  listen  to  them.  The  rains 
of  the  centuries  have  not  put  out  their  fire. 

But  it  is  not  simply  what  Jesus  says,  but  also  what 
those  who  touched  him  say  which  lets  us  look  into  the 
molten  centre  of  his  glowing  heart.  Mark  frankly 
tells  us  that  there  was  a  time  in  Jesus'  life  when  his 
labor  was  so  excessive  that  his  friends  said,  "He  is 
beside  himself."  Expressive,  indeed,  is  the  phrase. 
A  man  is  beside  himself  when  he  is  a  little  "off." 
He  is  not  "away  off,"  for  then  he  is  out  of  his  head, 
or  insane.  But  when  a  man  has  swung  just  a  little 
from  his  balance  he  is  beside  himself.  He  is  in  the 
borderland  which  is  between  sanity  and  insanity. 
Such  burning  earnestness  in  the  work  of  doing  good 
had  never  been  seen  in  Palestine.  No  wonder  men 
said,  "He  is  beside  himself!"  But  this  was  the 
judgment  of  his  friends.  His  enemies  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  say  boldly,  "He  has  a  devil,  he  is  mad." 
Jesus  made  this  impression  not  once,  but  often. 
Such  zeal  for  righteousness,  such  enthusiasm  for 
helping  men  seemed  to  the  cold-blooded  scribes  the 
fury  of  a  maniac.  It  was  when  Paul  was  burning 
with  the  same  kind  of  heat  that  Festus  cried,  "  Paul, 
thou  art  mad !"  Nothing  seems  so  crazy  as  enthu- 
siasm to  a  man  incapable  of  feeling  it. 

The  crowds  also  bear  witness  to  the  fire  which  this 


HIS  ENTHUSIASM  233 

man  had  in  him.  He  stirred  men  up  wherever  he 
went.  They  crowded  him  off  the  land  upon  the 
water.  They  pushed  him  off  the  plain  up  the  hillside. 
They  crowded  the  houses  in  which  he  tarried,  they 
pressed  round  him  as  he  walked  through  the  streets. 
Again  and  again  the  excitement  rose  to  fever  heat, 
and  Jesus  slipped  away  and  hid  himself.  Near  the 
close  of  his  career  the  crowds  went  wild  in  their 
tumultuous  joy,  shouting,  singing,  casting  their 
clothing  in  the  dust  that  the  animal  which  Jesus 
rode  might  have  a  carpet  for  its  hoofs  like  unto  that 
furnished  for  triumphal  processions  of  kings.  No 
man  can  set  a  crowd  blazing  unless  his  own  soul  is 
ablaze.  When  we  see  some  men  hurrahing  and 
adoring  and  other  men  gnashing  their  teeth  and 
cursing,  some  boiling  with  love,  others  seething  with 
hate,  it  is  evident  we  are  in  the  presence  of  a  man 
whose  heart  glows  like  a  furnace  and  whose  soul 
radiates  heat  wherever  he  goes. 

A  still  finer  evidence  of  this  is  found  in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  men  whom  Jesus  attracted  to  him  as  his 
intimate  friends.  The  apostles  were  all  men  of  fire. 
Do  not  believe  the  pictures  when  they  paint  the  twelve 
as  limp  and  pallid  men.  They  were  full-blooded, 
virile,  mighty  men,  full  of  fire  and  passion,  drawn 
to  Jesus  because  in  him  they  saw  a  man  who  satisfied 
them.  Peter  had  a  seething  soul,  his  words  roll  out 
of  him  like  molten  lava.  John  and  James  were 
called  Sons  of  Thunder.  The  disciple  whom  Jesus 
loved  was  so  passionate  that  he  wanted  to  burn  up     / 


234  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

a  whole  town  which  had  insulted  his  Master.  One 
of  the  disciples  was  a  zealot,  a  member  of  the  most 
radical  political  party  in  Palestine.  Men  of  this 
party  could  scarcely  sleep,  so  intense  was  their  hatred 
of  Rome,  and  no  man  among  the  zealots  could  ever 
have  been  attracted  by  a  cold-blooded,  limp-handed 
man.  It  was  because  Jesus  had  in  him  the  fire 
which  the  zealots  loved  that  Simon  enrolled  himself 
among  the  apostles.  Judas  also  was  a  man  made 
of  inflammable  stuff.  His  remorse  sets  him  on  fire 
and  there  is  nothing  more  thrilling  in  history  than 
his  shriek:  *'I  have  sinned!  I  have  sinned!"  If 
there  was  a  lethargic  temperament  in  the  apostolic 
company,  it  was  that  of  Thomas ;  but  even  he  was 
so  devoted  to  Jesus  that  at  a  crisis  in  his  life  he  said 
to  his  comrades,  "  Come,  let  us  go  and  die  with  him." 
That  was  the  feeling  of  them  all.  They  loved  Jesus 
with  such  an  intensity  of  devotion,  such  a  passionate 
self-abandon,  that  they  were  ready  at  any  moment 
to  lay  down  their  lives  for  him.  No  man  can  win  and 
hold  the  ardent  devotion  of  strong  men  unless  he 
has  a  soul  which  is  hot.  Jesus  from  first  to  last  was 
surrounded  by  enthusiasts  because  he  himself  was 
enthusiastic. 

If  you  ask  for  the  cause  of  this  enthusiasm,  you 
will  find  that  it  has  three  roots.  In  the  first  place, 
Jesus  had  a  sensitive  nature.  He  was  finely  or- 
ganized, his  nerves  were  delicately  strung.  There 
is  a  vast  difference  in  the  make-up  of  men.  Some 
men  are  coarse,  stolid,  heavy.    They  have  sensations 


HIS  ENTHUSIASM  235 

but  not  intense  ones.  They  have  the  emotions  of 
vegetables.  There  are  other  men  who  are  as  deli- 
cately adjusted  as  an  asolian  harp.  Every  breeze 
that  blows  over  them  causes  them  to  vibrate  and 
wooes  from  them  music.  Such  a  man  was  Jesus. 
No  finer  clay  was  ever  organized  around  a  soul 
than  that  which  formed  his  body,  and  this  body  was 
never  coarsened  or  calloused  by  sin.  On  the  Mount 
of  Transfiguration  his  soul  so  shone  through  his 
body  that  his  disciples  were  awed  and  overwhelmed. 
In  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  his  agony  was  so 
great  that  the  perspiration  on  his  brow  looked  in 
the  moonlight  like  huge  drops  of  blood.  When  his 
soul  at  one  time  came  into  his  face  men  fell  backward 
to  the  ground. 

Along  with  this  nature  capable  of  burning  there 
existed  a  vision  of  God  and  a  vision  of  man  which 
set  the  nation  on  fire.  Jesus  saw  that  the  maker  of 
the  universe  is  a  Father,  that  at  the  centre  of  things 
there  beats  a  Father's  heart,  that  over  all  there  ex- 
tends a  Father's  care,  and  that  to  all  there  flows 
a  Father's  love.  Other  men  have  seen  this  dimly, 
as  it  were  through  a  glass  darkly,  but  Jesus  saw  it  as 
it  had  never  been  seen  before  and  as  it  has  never  been 
seen  since.  It  was  to  him  the  one  clear  and  lumi- 
nous fact  of  the  universe  and  everything  else  was 
seen  in  the  glory  of  this  stupendous  truth.  Since 
God  is  the  all-Father,  then  all  men  are  His  children. 
He  created  them  all,  He  loves  them  all.  He  desires 
to  save  them  all.     No  matter  who  they  are  or  what 


236  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

they  are  or  where  they  are,  they  are  His  children, 
and  they  cannot  drift  beyond  His  love  and  care. 
Men  everywhere  are  brothers,  and  for  one  brother 
to  help  another,  this  is  the  supreme  joy  in  living. 
Other  men  see  this  dimly,  but  to  Jesus  it  was  all 
clear  as  the  sun  at  noon.  With  such  a  vision  of  God 
and  such  a  vision  of  man  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that 
his  soul  burned  like  a  star?  Out  of  such  a  nature 
heated  hot  by  such  a  vision  there  came  forth  a  pur- 
pose, steadfast  and  full  of  passion.  To  the  clear 
eye  of  Jesus  a  mighty  battle  was  raging  on  the  earth. 
There  was  a  terrific  conflict  between  right  and  wrong, 
light  and  darkness,  good  and  evil,  God  and  the  Devil. 
There  was  nothing  to  do  at  such  a  crisis  but  to  throw 
himself  whole-heartedly  into  the  contest,  fighting 
indomitably  for  the  glory  of  the  Father  and  the  wel- 
fare of  his  brethren.  Put  these  three  things  together 
—  a  sensitive  and  inflammable  nature,  a  clear  and 
glorious  vision,  and  a  fiery  and  indomitable  purpose 
— and  you  have  the  ingredients  which  go  to  produce 
the  divine  flame  which  is  known  as  enthusiasm. 

What  a  beautiful  thing  it  is,  enthusiasm  !  Moses 
turned  aside  to  see  a  burning  bush,  everybody  turns 
aside  to  see  a  burning  man.  Glance  across  the 
centuries  and  you  will  note  that  every  time  the  race 
has  turned  aside  from  the  beaten  path  it  has  been 
to  see  a  man  who  was  burning.  Enthusiasm  is  of 
different  kinds,  but  every  kind  is  fascinating.  There 
is  what  we  may  call  physical  enthusiasm,  the  enthusi- 
asm of  the  nerves  and  the  blood.     It  is  this  enthu- 


HIS  ENTHUSIASM  237 

siasm  which  was  kindled  at  the  great  athletic  contests 
in  Greece,  and  which  blazes  at  our  modern  foot- 
ball contests.  To  be  one  of  forty  thousand  people 
watching  a  few  strong  men  engaged  in  a  strenuous 
game  stirs  the  nerves  and  sets  the  corpuscles  in  the 
blood  to  hurrahing.  It  is  not  a  high  form  of  enthu- 
siasm, but  it  is  glorious,  and  men  will  go  miles  to 
experience  the  thrill.  Much  higher  than  this  is 
intellectual  enthusiasm,  the  fervor  which  men  feel 
in  the  pursuit  of  truth.  This  is  the  enthusiasm  of 
explorers  and  discoverers  and  inventors  and  scholars 
— men  who  devote  their  lives  to  the  sublime  work  of 
snatching  a  new  kingdom  from  the  clutch  of  the 
unknown.  Men  count  not  their  lives  dear  in  the 
pursuit  of  knowledge.  When  we  read  of  an  explorer 
dying  in  a  wild  and  desert  land,  or  of  a  physician 
giving  up  his  life  in  the  laboratory  in  search  of  a 
secret  which  will  diminish  pain  or  lengthen  life,  we 
are  awed  into  silence.  The  heart  knows  that  it 
stands  in  the  presence  of  something  divine.  Above 
this  is  the  aesthetic  enthusiasm,  fiery  zeal  in  the 
pursuit  of  beauty.  There  are  men  and  women  in 
whose  eyes  there  is  a  hunger  after  beauty  which  we 
who  do  not  have  it  cannot  understand.  The  man 
with  the  artistic  eye  is  seeking  everywhere  for  beauty. 
When  his  eyelids  fall,  his  soul  still  sees  forms,  colors, 
lights,  shadows,  scenes  of  loveliness  and  perfection. 
What  a  history  it  is,  the  history  of  art.  What  a  line 
of  heroes  and  martyrs  have  travelled  the  steep  and 
thorny  road. 


238  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

Many  a  man  has  painted  day  by  day  until  his 
eyes  began  to  fail,  and  then  he  has  painted  on  and 
on  amid  the  deepening  shadows,  never  faltering, 
never  surrendering  until  the  final  darkness  falls. 
Others  have  in  their  ears  a  hunger  after  harmony. 
All  through  life  they  thirst  for  fuller  measures  of 
lovely  tones.  There  is  no  temple  for  them  but  the 
vast  and  glorious  temple  of  music,  and  melodies 
and  divine  sequences  of  ordered  tones  flow  in  a  con- 
stant tide  through  the  soul.  What  biographies  they 
are,  the  biographies  of  musicians.  For  many  of 
them  it  has  been  a  life  of  labor,  privation,  sacrifice, 
disappointment,  poverty ;  but  all  things  precious  have 
been  counted  dross  by  souls  in  pursuit  of  higher 
strains  of  the  heavenly  anthem.  Before  all  such 
martyrs  the  soul  takes  off  its  shoes,  knowing  that  the 
ground  is  holy.  But  higher  than  all  enthusiasms  is 
the  fire  that  burns  in  souls  in  love  with  God.  To 
know  Him,  to  serve  Him,  to  glorify  Him,  this  is  the 
highest  ambition  of  which  the  soul  is  capable,  and 
the  soul  when  possessed  with  this  ambition  burns 
with  a  fire  that  cannot  be  quenched.  This  was  the 
enthusiasm  of  Jesus.  In  him  the  highest  of  the 
enthusiasms  reached  its  climax.  He  lived  and  moved 
and  had  his  being  in  the  presence  of  the  Eternal. 
From  the  beginning  to  the  end  he  saw  the  majesty 
of  righteousness,  loved  the  beauty  of  holiness,  and 
lived  for  the  glory  of  God. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  then,  that  the  religion 
of  Jesus  likes  the  word  "  fire."     John  the  Baptist  de- 


HIS  ENTHUSIASM  239 

clared  that  he  could  baptize  only  with  water  but  that 
one  was  coming  who  would  baptize  with  fire.  From 
John's  hands  men  came  dripping,  from  Jesus'  hands 
they  came  blazing.  St.  Luke  tells  us  that  on  the  Day 
of  Pentecost  there  seemed  to  be  a  flame  on  every 
forehead,  fit  emblem  of  the  new  religion's  heart. 
John  on  the  isle  of  Patmos  thinking  of  Jesus  sees 
him  with  eyes  like  flames  of  fire  and  feet  of  bur- 
nished brass.  He  hears  him  talking  to  the  Laodice- 
ans,  and  this  is  what  he  says:  "I  would  thou  wert 
cold  or  hot.  Because  thou  art  lukewarm,  and  neither 
hot  nor  cold,  I  will  spew  you  out  of  my  mouth."  One 
can  drink  cold  water  with  a  relish.  He  can  also 
drink  water  heated  to  a  certain  temperature.  But 
against  tepid  water  the  stomach  rebels.  The  be- 
loved disciple  does  not  hesitate  to  represent  Jesus 
saying,  "Lukewarm  Christians  are  nauseating  to 
me!" 

And  alas !  how  many  lukewarm  Christians  there 
are,  men  who  are  indifferent,  neutral,  neither  hot  nor 
cold.  They  do  not  oppose,  they  approve,  but  appro- 
bation cannot  set  the  world  on  fire.  Approbation 
is  a  nod  of  one  corner  of  the  intellect,  enthusiasm 
is  the  smile  of  the  soul.  What  is  the  matter  with 
Christians  that  they  are  so  lacking  in  enthusiasm? 
The  answer  is  that  the  nature  is  saturated,  soaked  by 
the  chilling  drizzle  of  worldliness,  and  along  with 
this  deterioration  of  nature  comes  a  diminishing  of 
the  vision  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brother- 
hood of  man,  and  because  there  is  a  shadowed  vision 


240  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  glowing  purpose  is  also  lacking,  and  the  soul 
does  not  catch  fire.  What,  then,  shall  we  do  ?  Let 
us  go  back  to  Him  who  is  a  zealous  God,  so  eager 
and  ardent  in  His  love  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son.  If  we  are  not  ablaze  in  the  presence  of  such 
a  gospel,  it  is  because  we  have  a  heart  of  stone ;  but 
He  who  knows  our  frame  and  who  remembers  that 
we  are  dust  has  promised  to  remove  the  heart  of 
stone  and  to  give  us  a  heart  of  flesh. 


XIX 
THE   GLADNESS   OF   JESUS 


XIX 

THE  GLADNESS  OF  JESUS 

"Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad." 

—  Matthew  v  :  12. 

We  are  trying  to  see  Jesus  of  Nazareth!  Our 
one  question  is:  What  kind  of  man  was  he?  We 
are  not  studying  his  personaHty  or  considering  his 
ideas  —  all  we  want  to  know  is  what  kind  of  a  man 
he  was,  how  did  he  impress  the  people  who  saw 
him  in  Galilee  and  Judea.  We  are  trymg  to  get 
rid  of  impressions  which  have  been  made  upon  us 
by  painters  and  our  own  imagination.  It  is  by  no 
means  easy  to  see  him  as  he  was,  the  mists  blow  in 
between  us  and  him,  and  blur  the  features  of  his 
face.  The  dust  settles  upon  the  picture  which  the 
evangelists  have  painted  and  the  man  becomes  dim 
to  our  eyes.  All  sorts  of  men  —  poets,  philosophers, 
painters  —  have  like  so  many  human  spiders  woven 
cobwebs  over  the  picture,  so  that  until  we  brush  the 
cobwebs  away  it  is  impossible  to  see  him.  In  the 
words  of  the  familiar  hymn,  "We  would  see  Jesus, '^ 
we  would  bring  him  out  of  the  shadows  and  see  him 
as  he  is.  It  is  an  interesting  enterprise  in  which 
we  are  engaged,  because  all  the  Christian  churches 
take   their   name   from   this   man.     The   churches 

243 


244  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

differ  widely  from  one  another  in  worship,  in  govern- 
ment, in  teachings,  —  Protestants  of  many  kinds  are 
separated  from  one  another,  and  CathoUcs  of  many 
classes  are  also  separated  from  one  another,  —  but 
this  one  thing  is  remarkable,  that  all  the  Christian 
churches  of  the  world  are  clinging  tenaciously  to 
the  garments  of  this  man.  They  all  without  excep- 
tion call  him  Master;  they  all  hold  him  up  as  the 
pattern  of  a  perfect  life.  ''He,"  they  say,  "is  our 
example.  We  are  to  reproduce  the  characteristic 
notes  displayed  in  him."  And  therefore  it  becomes 
not  only  an  interesting  enterprise,  but  one  of  tre- 
mendous importance,  this  effort  to  find  out  what  kind 
of  man  he  was.  If  we  get  a  distorted  image  of  him, 
we  harm  ourselves  and  rob  the  world.  Just  in 
proportion  as  we  see  him  clearly  and  understand 
precisely  what  sort  of  man  he  was,  do  we  become 
able  to  pattern  our  lives  after  his  and  become  the 
men  God  would  have  us  to  be. 

Pushing  then  all  the  poets  and  philosophers  aside, 
let  us  ask  ourselves  the  question:  Did  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  impress  men  as  glad  or  sad,  solemn  or 
radiant,  jubilant  or  melancholy  ?  There  is  no  doubt 
about  the  answer  which  the  painters  give.  They 
nearly  always  paint  him  sad,  they  love  to  paint  him 
on  the  cross,  they  picture  him  dying  with  a  great 
melancholy  in  his  eyes  —  or  if  they  do  not  paint 
him  on  the  cross,  they  paint  him  on  the  way  to  the 
cross  with  the  crown  of  thorns  on  his  head,  bending 
under  the  burden  as  he  staggers  up  Golgotha.     In 


HIS  GLADNESS  245 

all  the  Catholic  churches  of  the  world  you  see  the 
twelve  stations  of  the  cross.  The  Jesus  of  Christian 
history  is  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief ;  there  is  sadness  in  his  face  and  a  great  pang 
in  his  heart.  Christianity  is  the  religion  of  sorrow, 
said  Goethe,  and  Carlyle  declared  that  Goethe's 
judgment  was  correct.  And  not  only  do  the  painters 
paint  him  sad,  but  so  also  does  our  imagination. 
When  we  think  of  him  we  think  of  him  as  crucified. 
In  that  wonderful  painting  of  Hoi  man  Hunt  the 
cross  on  which  Jesus  died  casts  a  shadow  out  across 
Jerusalem  to  the  end  of  the  world,  and  that  is  what 
the  cross  does  in  the  pictures  which  our  mind  paints 
of  Jesus  and  the  world  in  which  he  lived  —  we  always 
see  him  with  the  shadow  of  the  cross  upon  him, 
we  always  think  of  him  as  severe  and  sad.  But 
we  cannot  afford  to  follow  the  painters.  They 
paint  Jesus  with  a  halo.  Nobody  in  Jerusalem  ever 
saw  the  halo.  They  paint  him  with  a  shadow  on 
his  face  —  do  you  suppose  the  men  in  Palestine 
saw  the  shadow  ?    We  want  to  see  him  as  he  was. 

In  order  to  find  out  what  impression  he  really 
made  upon  the  people  of  his  day,  it  will  be  worth  our 
while  to  listen  to  what  his  enemies  had  to  say.  Of 
course  his  enemies  will  not  speak  the  ungarbled 
truth,  they  will  deal  in  falsehoods ;  but  even  false- 
hoods are  of  great  advantage  in  trying  to  make  one's 
way  toward  the  truth.  There  is  nothing  that  so 
dumfounds  a  lawyer  in  the  questioning  of  a  witness 
as  unbroken  silence.     If  a  witness  will  only  speak. 


246  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

if  he  will  only  speak  falsehoods,  his  speech  is  more 
illuminating  than  continuous  silence,  for  falsehoods 
when  arranged  in  a  row  have  a  curious  fashion  of 
pointing  in  the  direction  of  the  truth.  When  a  man 
begins  lying,  if  you  can  only  keep  him  lying  long 
enough,  he  will  by  and  by  put  you  on  the  track  of 
discovering  what  the  truth  is.  And  so  it  is  with  the 
enemies  of  Jesus.  They  have  said  certain  things 
which  are  invaluable  to  us  in  our  search  after  au- 
thentic knowledge  of  the  character  of  Jesus.  Among 
other  things  which  they  said,  they  declared  he  was  a 
glutton.  Of  course  he  was  not,  but  they  said  he 
was.  Now  a  glutton  is  never  a  glum  and  sour- 
faced  man.  Gluttony  is  a  form  of  pleasure.  Men 
overeat  because  overeating  gives  enjoyment.  A 
glutton  is  likely  to  be  round  and  rotund.  When  the 
men  of  Jesus'  day  said  he  was  a  glutton  we  may 
rest  assured  he  was  not  an  ascetic  in  his  looks  or  hab- 
its. They  also  called  him  a  wine  bibber.  Of  course 
he  was  not,  but  the  very  fact  that  they  accused  him 
of  guzzling  wine  points  in  the  direction  of  the  kind 
of  man  he  was.  A  wine  bibber  is  usually  a  jolly  man. 
Wine  unlocks  the  lips  and  gives  temporary  brilliancy 
to  the  mind.  A  man  under  the  influence  of  wine  is 
exceedingly  social  and  talkative  and  genial.  The 
enemies  of  Jesus  would  never  have  called  him  a  wine 
bibber  if  he  had  been  as  glum  and  sad  as  some  of 
the  artists  have  painted  him.  They  called  him  also 
the  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.  By  publicans 
and  sinners  we  are  to  understand  non-churchgoers. 


HIS  GLADNESS 


247 


This  man  not  only  went  to  church  and  associated 
with  pious  people,  but  he  associated  with  people 
who  had  no  piety  at  all.  When  they  declared  he 
was  a  friend  of  these  non-churchgoers,  they  implied 
that  he  was  of  the  same  stripe  as  they  —  **  Birds  of 
a  feather  always  flock  together."  He  would  never 
have  associated  with  such  godless  people  if  he  himself 
had  not  had  a  godless  heart.  So  his  enemies  declared, 
and  if  Jesus  had  been  taciturn  and  sullen,  grim  and 
morose,  his  enemies  would  never  have  declared  he 
was  a  boon  companion  of  light-hearted  men.  Their 
lying  would  have  taken  another  form.  Put,  then, 
these  three  bits  of  falsehood  together,  and  what  is 
the  direction  in  which  they  point?  They  are  the 
most  precious  bits  of  slander  that  ever  slipped  from 
slimy  lips.  They  prove  indisputably  that  whatever 
Jesus  was  or  was  not,  he  was  not  morose  or  sour  or 
melancholy. 

Having  listened  to  the  testimony  of  his  enemies, 
let  us  now  study  one  of  the  words  Jesus  applied 
to  himself.  There  were  pious  people  in  Palestine 
who  were  greatly  scandalized  because  Jesus  never 
fasted,  nor  did  he  teach  his  disciples  that  it  was  their 
duty  to  fast.  Fasting  was  a  recognized  feature  of 
the  Jewish  religion.  Every  person  of  orthodox 
piety  in  Palestine  fasted  twice  every  week.  Fasting 
had  been  prescribed  by  the  greatest  of  the  rabbis; 
it  had  also  been  the  requirement  of  John  the  Baptist 
himself.  Some  people  came  to  Jesus  one  day  in 
disgust,  saying,   "Why  do  your  disciples  not  fast?" 


1/ 


248  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

The  reply  of  Jesus  is  illuminating.  He  said,  "  How 
can  the  children  of  the  bridechamber  fast  when  the 
bridegroom  is  with  them?"  Did  you  ever  mark 
the  use  of  that  word  ' '  bridegroom ' '  ?  Jesus  says  that 
he  is  a  bridegroom.  He  seized  upon  a  word  that  is 
the  symbol  of  human  joy.  If  ever  a  man  is  happy 
in  this  world,  it  is  on  his  wedding  day.  Jesus  says 
that  he  lives  in  an  atmosphere  of  weddmg  joy,  and 
so  also  do  his  disciples.  It  is  impossible  therefore 
for  either  him  or  his  disciples  to  take  up  any  of  the 
old  fashions  of  the  grim  and  solemn  piety  of  the  past. 
He  told  the  men  who  criticised  him  that  his  life 
was  different  from  the  life  of  John  the  Baptist  and 
also  from  the  life  of  the  Pharisees.  You  cannot  mix 
the  two  kinds  of  piety,  the  two  forms  of  life  will  not 
mingle.  Let  me  give  you  an  illustration  or  two,  he 
said:  "A  man  does  not  put  a  new  patch  on  an  old 
garment,  because  the  new  patch  will  tear  out  and 
the  rent  will  be  still  worse.  Neither  can  you  put 
my  form  of  life  on  to  the  old  form  of  piety,  the  two 
will  not  hold  together,  the  strength  that  is  in  my 
form  of  life  will  simply  tear  the  old  form  of  life  to 
pieces.  Or,  to  give  you  another  illustration,  men 
do  not  put  new  wine  into  old  wine  skins,  for  there  is 
too  much  life  and  movement  and  sparkle  in  new 
wine  for  the  old  skins.  If  you  attempt  to  put  the 
new  wine  into  the  old  skins,  the  old  skins  will  burst 
and  the  wine  will  be  lost.  So  do  not  think  that  you 
can  put  the  new  life  which  I  live  and  which  I  want 
all  my  followers  to  live  into  old  forms  of  pharisaic 


HIS  GLADNESS  249 

piety,  for  this  cannot  be  done.  I  am  living  a  new 
kind  of  life,  and  I  want  a  new  kind  of  man,  a  new 
spirit,  a  new  form  of  religion." 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  Jesus  was  a  man  abound- 
ing in  joy.  Gladness  was  one  of  the  notes  of  his  ^  l_<? 
character.  Listen  to  him  as  he  teaches,  and  again 
and  again  you  catch  the  notes  of  happiness.  He  was  . 
all  the  time  saying,  ''Unless  you  become  like  a  little! 
child,  you  cannot  enter  the  kingdom  of  God"  —  and; 
what  was  it  in  the  little  child  that  attracted  him? 
One  thing  which  attracted  him  was  the  child's 
sunny  heart.  What  would  we  do  in  this  world 
without  the  children  laughing  away  the  cares  and 
sighs?  Have  you  ever  listened  to  their  laughter 
in  the  streets  while  the  funeral  procession  was  pass- 
ing by?  Have  you  ever  seen  a  golden-haired  little 
child  with  beaming  face  at  the  centre  of  a  room  in 
which  there  was  a  casket  around  which  broken- 
hearted men  and  women  were  gathering?  Look  at 
that  child  in  the  centre  of  the  chamber  of  death  — 
that  is  the  picture  of  the  Christian  amid  the  shadows 
of  this  darkened  world.  Or  listen  again  to  what 
he  says  about  worry.  He  defines  it  as  one  of  the 
deadliest  of  all  sins.  We  are  not  to  worry  about  the 
present,  about  the  necessities  of  existence,  about 
to-morrow,  about  what  we  ought  to  do  or  say  in 
the  great  crises  which  lie  ahead  of  us.  It  is  not  right, 
he  says ;  it  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  God.  Look  at 
nature:  see  the  lilies  and  the  birds,  there  is  not  a 
trace  of  solicitude  in  all  nature's  lovely  face.    Listen 


250  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

again  to  the  exhortations  which  he  gives  his  disciples. 
He  tells  them  that  when  men  persecute  them  and 
say  all  manner  of  evil  against  them  falsely,  they  are 
to  rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad.  The  English 
\p  translation  does  not  do  justice  to  the  Greek.  He 
says,  "Rejoice  and  leap  for  joy."  Let  your  joy 
express  itself.  When  matters  are  at  their  worst, 
then  you  ought  to  have  the  happiness  which  leaps. 
Certainly  a  sad-hearted  man  could  never  give  advice 
like  that.  Listen  to  him  again  as  he  says  to  the 
great  crowds,  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest;  for  my 
yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden  is  light."  A  glum- 
faced  prophet  could  never  speak  so.  He  was  glad 
even  to  the  end.  Even  in  the  upper  chamber,  with 
death  only  a  few  hours  away,  he  goes  right  on  speak- 
ing of  the  joy  that  is  bubbling  up  in  his  own  heart 
and  he  prays  that  the  same  joy  may  abound  in  the 
hearts  of  those  that  love  him.  He  tells  his  disciples 
that  all  of  his  teaching  has  been  granted  unto  them 
because  of  his  desire  that  his  joy  might  remain  in 
them  and  that  their  joy  might  be  full.  There  was 
no  shadow  on  his  face  that  night  in  the  upper  cham- 
ber.    The  cross  is  near,  but  it  casts  no  shadow. 

But  does  not  the  New  Testament  say  that  Jesus 
wept?  It  does.  And  does  the  New  Testament 
ever  say  that  Jesus  laughed?  It  does  not.  Are 
we  therefore  to  infer  that  Jesus  often  wept  and  never 
laughed?  The  inference  is  unfounded.  Why  does 
the  New  Testament  say  that  Jesus  wept  ?    Probably 


HIS  GLADNESS  25 1 

because  it  was  so  exceptional.  It  is  the  exceptional 
thing  that  is  written  down.  There  are  four  million 
people  in  New  York  City,  let  one  of  them  kill  another 
—  he  gets  at  once  into  the  papers.  Murder  is 
exceptional  and  so  it  is  always  noted.  Thousands 
of  people  walk  the  streets,  let  one  of  them  fall  and 
break  his  leg  and  that  accident  is  noted  —  no  atten- 
tion is  paid  to  the  thousands  who  meet  with  no  acci- 
dent. Jesus  laughed  so  frequently  it  was  not  worth 
while  calling  attention  to  it.  He  wept  so  seldom 
that  when  he  did  weep  it  struck  the  disciples  with 
consternation.  John  could  never  forget  it.  He 
remembered  the  day  at  the  tomb  of  Lazarus  when 
Mary  was  weeping  and  her  sister  and  all  the  relatives 
and  friends,  and  it  was  then  that  Jesus  wept,  so  tender 
and  sympathetic  was  he  that  he  broke  down  —  that 
great  strong,  radiant,  exuberant  man  wept.  John 
says  that  the  world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books 
that  could  be  written  if  he  attempted  to  put  down 
all  the  things  which  Jesus  said  and  did.  He  will 
crowd  back  a  million  things,  to  make  room  for  that 
one  surprising  fact  that  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus 
Jesus  wept.  The  sentence  instead  of  proving  that 
Jesus  was  lachrymose  and  doleful  bears  eloquent 
witness  to  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  buoyant  and 
exultant. 

A  Christian  must  then,  if  he  would  follow  Jesus, 
be  a  joyous  and  jubilant  man.  Some  one  says  at 
once,  *'Ah,  I  know  many  Christians  who  are  any- 
thing but  happy,  they  are  the  most  doleful  creatures 


252  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

in  all  the  world,  they  whine  and  whimper,  they  sob 
and  cry,  their  very  faces  are  images  of  woe  —  how 
will  you  explain  that?"  The  explanation  is  that 
all  such  persons  although  they  profess  to  follow 
Jesus,  follow  him  afar  off.  You  may  be  tempted 
to  say  that  glum  and  dismal  Christians  are  not 
Christians  at  all.  That  is  probably  somewhat  too 
severe.  It  would  be  nearer  right  to  say  that  they 
are  not  developed  Christians,  mature  or  ripened 
Christians.  The  very  finest  apples,  you  know,  in 
the  earlier  stages  of  their  growth  are  sour  and  green. 
It  is  not  until  the  sun  has  done  his  perfect  work  that 
they  are  golden  and  luscious.  Just  so  it  is  with  souls 
in  the  earlier  stages  of  development  —  they  are  often 
green  and  sour,  crabbed,  and  full  of  acid.  But  if 
they  will  only  subject  themselves  to  the  shining  of 
the  sun,  the  great  joyous,  exuberant,  laughing  sun, 
all  the  juices  of  their  nature  will  grow  sweet  and 
mellow,  and  they  will  find  themselves  at  last  in  the 
kingdom  of  peace  and  joy. 

It  is  the  tragedy  of  this  world  that  there  are  so 
many  people  in  it  who  find  it  impossible  to  rejoice. 
What  is  the  matter  with  you  that  you  are  not  happier 
than  you  are  ?  Certainly  there  is  something  wrong ! 
What  a  pity  it  is  to  live  in  a  world  like  this  and  not 
enjoy  living !  It  is  amazing  that  any  one  should  live 
in  a  universe  so  glorious,  and  not  feel  like  shouting ! 
If  you  are  lachrymose  and  drooping  it  is  because  there 
is  something  wrong.  You  are  not  well  in  body  or 
in  mind,  or  it  may  be  you  are  sick  in  both.    You  have 


HIS  GLADNESS  253 

not  yet  learned  the  high  art  of  living,  you  have  not 
yet  come  to  Jesus.     Why  not  come  and  sit  at  his    / 
feet?    Why  not  take  his  yoke  upon  you  and  learn 
of  him,  for  his  yoke  is  easy  and  his  burden  is  light. 


XX 

THE  HUMILITY  OF   JESUS 


XX 

THE  HUMILITY  OF  JESUS 

"I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart." 

—  Matthew  xi  :  29. 

Let  us  begin  with  that  wonderful  verse  in  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  the  Gospel  according  to  St. 
Matthew:  "Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden;  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take 
my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  me ;  for  I  am  meek 
and  lowly  in  heart :  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls."  That  sentence  is  unique  in  the  Gospel. 
There  is  nothing  else  at  all  like  it.  It  is  a  bit 
of  autobiography  which  is  immeasurably  precious. 
Nowhere  is  Jesus  recorded  as  having  said,  "  Come 
imto  me,  for  I  am  patient  —  for  I  am  courageous  — 
for  I  am  self-sacrificing;''  but  here  for  the  first 
time  he  calls  attention  to  one  of  his  characteristics. 
He  has  allowed  other  men  to  call  attention  to  this 
virtue  or  that  grace,  but  he  himself  will  bring  out 
the  fact  that  he  is  humble.  At  this  point  he  takes 
the  brush  in  his  own  hand,  saying,  "I  will  put  this 
color  on  myself."  So  unusual  is  the  sentence  that 
some  men  have  been  scandalized  by  it.    They  have 

257 


258  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

declared  he  never  said  it,  that  it  is  not  like  him,  that 
he  could  not  say  it,  that  if  he  did  say  it,  it  reveals  a 
defect  in  his  character.  These  men  tell  us  that  a 
man  cannot  eulogize  himself,  that  it  is  always  im- 
proper for  a  man  to  sing  his  own  praises.  All  of 
which  may  be  true,  but  this  is  a  fair  question :  Is 
it  right  for  a  man  ever  to  describe  himself?  Is  it 
proper  for  a  man  to  give  a  reason  why  men  should 
come  to  him  and  take  lessons  of  him?  I  think  it 
is.  That  is  all  Jesus  does  in  this  instance.  He 
says,  "Come  unto  me,  I  have  something  to  teach 
you,  I  should  like  to  teach  you  humility." 

Possibly  no  other  virtue  in  the  catalogue  of  Chris- 
tian virtues  is  so  misunderstood  as  this  one.  No 
other  one  has  been  so  often  erroneously  defined,  no 
other  grace  has  been  so  persistently  counterfeited 
and  caricatured.  What  do  we  mean  by  humility? 
If  you  should  have  asked  that  question  in  the  streets 
of  ancient  Athens,  men  would  have  told  you  that 
humility  is  something  mean,  it  is  cowardly,  cring- 
ing, groveling ;  humility  is  meanness  of  spirit,  it  is 
something  low  and  selfish,  it  is  a  characteristic  of 
slaves.  If  a  Greek  had  called  another  Greek 
humble,  the  Greek  would  have  been  insulted  by  the 
epithet.  In  all  the  Pagan  world  there  was  no  virtue 
known  as  humility.  Humility  was  always  and  every- 
where a  defect,  a  blemish,  a  vice. 

But  what  do  we  mean  by  humility?  The  ques- 
tion is  not  so  easily  answered  as  it  might  seem. 
Humility  is  a  Christian  virtue  —  everybody  says  it 


HIS  HUMILITY  259 

is.  We  know  that  Jesus  was  humble,  we  know  also 
that  he  demands  humility  of  us,  we  know  that  he 
took  the  ancient  word  and  cleansed  it  and  made  it  a 
lovely  word,  and  yet  when  asked  to  define  the  mean- 
ing of  it,  how  difficult  it  is  to  do.  What  a  variety  of 
answers  we  have  in  answer  to  the  question  what 
humility  is  !  One  person  says  it  is  taking  a  low  esti- 
mate of  one's  deserts;  another  says  it  is  making 
one's  self  small.  Another  says  it  is  a  sense  of  in- 
feriority in  the  presence  of  others.  Another  says  it 
is  a  sense  of  imperfection,  or  of  ill  desert.  Another 
says  that  it  is  softness,  passivity,  a  willingness  to 
submit.  Now  all  of  these  definitions  are  proved  to 
be  erroneous  the  moment  we  carry  them  into  the 
atmosphere  of  the  New  Testament.  The  humility 
which  Jesus  requires  of  those  who  follow  him  is  the 
humility  which  he  had  himself,  and  certainly  his 
humility  was  not  meanness  of  spirit.  There  was 
nothing  cringing  or  crawling  in  him.  When  has 
there  walked  the  earth  a  man  who  held  his  head 
higher  than  did  he?  When  has  the  world  known 
a  man  of  such  lofty,  regnant  spirit?  Nor  did  he 
take  a  low  estimate  of  himself.  On  the  other  hand, 
no  man  ever  estimated  himself  so  highly.  Hear 
him  saying  to  the  astounded  crowd:  **It  was  said 
to  you  by  them  of  old  time  —  but  I  say  unto  you," 
thus  putting  himself  higher  than  Moses.  Listen  to 
him  as  he  says:  "A  greater  than  Solomon  is  here," 
"I  am  the  good  shepherd,"  "I  am  the  light  of 
the   world,"    "I   am  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the 


260  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

life,"  "I  am  from  above/'  "No  man  knows  the 
Father  but  the  Son/*  "No  man  comes  to  the 
Father  save  through  me,"  "I,  if  I  be  Ufted  up,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me."  Certainly  humility  on  the 
lips  of  Jesus  does  not  mean  a  low  estimate  of  one's 
powers.  Let  us  then  come  close  to  him  in  order  to 
understand  just  what  he  means  when  he  says,  "I 
am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart." 

Jesus  gave  his  disciples  three  great  lessons  on  the 
subject  of  humility,  and  to  these  I  invite  your  atten- 
tion. You  will  find  the  first  of  them  recorded  in 
the  eighteenth  of  Matthew,  the  first  five  verses.  On 
a  certain  occasion  Jesus  takes  a  little  child,  and 
putting  him  in  the  midst,  says:  "Whoever  shall 
humble  himself  as  a  little  child  the  same  shall  be 
great  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Except  ye  become 
as  a  little  child,  ye  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  The  words  have  been  re- 
peated to  us  so  frequently  they  fail  to  surprise  the 
heart.  This  is  one  of  the  great  scenes  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  one  of  the  original  scenes.  Nothing 
like  it  was  ever  known  in  the  history  of  Assyria,  or 
of  Babylonia,  or  of  Egypt,  or  of  Persia,  or  of  Greece 
or  Rome.  It  is  unique,  absolutely  original.  "  Who- 
soever shall  humble  himself  as  a  little  child"  —  and 
what  is  the  crowning  characteristic  of  a  little  Child? 
It  is  teachableness,  docility,  willingness  to  learn.  A 
child  is  eager  for  knowledge,  he  is  everlastingly  ask- 
ing questions,  he  is  always  bent  on  investigation,  he 
pries  into  everything.    He  wants  to  go  to  the  roots 


HIS  HUMILITY  26 1 

of  everything.  He  always  wants  you  to  tell  him  one 
more  story,  he  will  wear  a  half  dozen  grown  people 
out  simply  by  the  questions  which  he  asks  —  so 
hungry  is  he  for  knowledge.  This  teachableness  is 
humility. 

Not  only  is  he  free  from .  self-sufficiency,  but 
he  is  free  from  vanity.  A  little  child  is  not  vain 
of  the  belongings  of  its  parents.  It  cares  nothing 
for  diamonds  or  silks,  brown  stone,  or  carriages. 
It  plays  with  perfect  contentment  with  a  child  in  the 
street  whose  parents  have  no  carriages  and  who  are 
too  poor  to  own  diamonds.  Free  from  vanity  it 
also  knows  nothing  of  ambition,  it  knows  nothing 
of  social  aspirations.  Place  before  it  the  queen  of 
England  and  its  own  mother,  and  it  will  choose  its 
mother  every  time,  though  she  be  nothing  but  a 
washwoman  —  so  simple,  so  human,  so  beautiful 
is  the  heart  of  a  child.  It  is  this  characteristic  of 
the  child  heart  that  Jesus  loves.  It  was  because  the 
Pharisees  did  not  have  it  that  he  criticised  them  and 
condemned  them.  They  were  not  teachable,  they 
knew  everything.  Nobody  could  tell  them  any- 
thing. They  were  vain,  they  blew  trumpets  and 
called  attention  to  their  decorations.  They  loved 
salutations.  They  were  ambitious,  they  were  always 
pushing  themselves  forward,  taking  the  chief  places 
at  the  feasts.  He  could  do  nothing  with  them  be- 
cause they  were  not  humble.  He,  on  the  other 
hand,  had  the  heart  of  a  child.  The  evangelists  do 
not  tell  us  about  the  first  twelve  years  of  his  life, 


262  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

but  in  imagination  we  can  see  him  sitting  at  the  feet 
of  his  mother  drinking  in  knowledge  from  her  lips. 
We  can  see  him  in  the  little  school  in  Nazareth, 
studying,  hungry  for  knowledge.  We  get  just  a 
glimpse  of  him  at  the  age  of  twelve,  so  hungry  for 
knowledge  that  he  will  not  go  home,  but  lingers 
behind  to  ask  the  big  teachers  in  the  Temple  just 
one  more  question.  Always  was  he  teachable. 
There  is  no  trace  of  arrogance  in  him,  no  spirit  of 
assumption.  He  is  constantly  talking  to  God,  ask- 
ing him  questions,  praying  for  new  light.  He  can- 
not live  without  prayer.  Prayer  is  the  language 
of  humility.  Only  the  docile  in  heart  ever  pray. 
When  we  say  that  Jesus  was  a  man  of  prayer,  we 
say  he  was  meek  and  lowly  in  heart. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  twentieth  of  Matthew, 
verses  twenty-five  to  twenty-eight.  His  disciples,  in 
spite  of  all  his  admonitions  and  teachings,  are  filled 
with  the  ambitious  spirit.  They  all  want  to  be  first. 
They  want  to  be  high  up.  Two  of  them  ask 
for  chief  places  in  his  kingdom.  He  tells  them  that 
he  cannot  grant  their  request.  When  the  ten  other 
apostles  heard  of  the  request  which  the  two  had 
made,  the  ten  were  indignant.  This  was  because 
they  themselves  were  ambitious  —  they  wanted  the 
places  themselves.  Jesus  calls  the  twelve  around 
him  and  says:  "You  know  that  the  princes  of  the 
Gentiles  exercise  dominion  over  them,  and  they  that 
are  great  exercise  authority  upon  them.  But  it 
shall  not  be  so  among  you:   but  whosoever  will  be 


HIS  HUMILITY  263 

great  among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister;  and 
whosoever  will  be  chief  among  you  let  him  be 
your  servant."  Here  we  get  another  note  in 
the  grace  of  humility.  It  is  not  only  teachable- 
ness, freedom  from  vanity  and  ambition,  but  it  is 
also  a  willingness  to  serve.  A  humble  man  is  a  man 
who  is  ready  to  make  himself  useful.  A  man  of 
lowly  spirit  is  a  man  who  will  help  his  brethren,  and 
here  again  Jesus  in  substance  says ;  **  Come  unto  me, 
for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart.  Whosoever  will 
be  chief  among  you  let  him  be  your  servant,  even  as 
the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but 
to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many." 
Does  this  not  paint  the  picture  of  his  life?  As  an 
inspired  apostle  puts  it,  "He  went  about  doing 
good."  He  never  patronized,  nor  looked  down. 
He  made  himself  of  no  reputation  if  only  he  could 
help  those  that  needed  help.  He  did  not  under- 
estimate his  powers,  or  make  himself  small,  or  feel 
himself  to  be  unworthy;  he  simply  came  down  to 
where  men  were  in  order  to  do  them  good.  That  is 
Christian  humility. 

The  third  lesson  in  humility  was  given  his  disciples 
on  the  very  night  of  his  betrayal,  in  the  upper  cham- 
ber. You  will  find  the  incident  recorded  in  the 
thirteenth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  according  to  St. 
John.  The  disciples  are  still  filled  with  the  ambitious 
spirit.  They  have  not  yet  learned  the  joy  of  serving, 
for  all  have  nettled  hearts  because  they  have  not 
gotten  the  places  which  they  wanted,  and  Jesus 


264  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

unwilling  to  allow  the  feast  to  go  forward  arises 
from  the  table,  and  taking  a  basin  and  girding  him- 
self with  a  towel  proceeds  to  rinse  the  dust  from  the 
disciples'  feet.  Knowing  their  dulness  of  under- 
standing he  goes  on  to  explain  the  meaning  of  his 
action,  telling  them,  just  as  he  has  been  willing  to  do 
the  work  of  a  slave  in  order  to  serve  them,  so  they 
also  must  be  willing  to  serve  one  another.  Here, 
again,  we  see  what  humility  really  is.  It  is  laying 
aside  one's  dignity,  it  is  making  one's  self  of  no  repu- 
tation, it  is  a  willingness  to  come  down,  it  is  a  delight 
in  rendering  service.  And  why  was  it  that  Jesus 
was  able  to  do  this  ?  St.  John  gives  the  explanation 
in  the  wonderful  words,  "Knowing  that  he  came 
from  God,  and  was  going  back  to  God."  It  was 
not  because  he  had  mean  ideas  of  himself,  nor  be- 
cause he  desired  to  make  himself  small;  it  was 
because  he  knew  his  divine  origin  and  his  divine 
destiny,  and  was  conscious  of  his  lofty  position  that 
he  was  willing  to  take  the  basin  and  the  towel  and 
do  the  work  of  a  slave.  This  is  the  secret  of  hu- 
mility everywhere  and  always.  A  man  is  never 
humble  except  by  coming  close  to  God.  It  is  by 
thinking  of  the  Eternal  that  man  becomes  willing 
to  do  the  things  which  otherwise  would  be  difficult 
or  impossible.  It  is  because  we  do  not  know  that 
we  have  come  from  God,  and  forget  that  we  are 
going  back  to  Him  that  we  make  such  an  ado  about 
our  dignity,  and  prize  so  highly  our  reputation,  and 
are  so  lordly  and  so  lofty  minded,  and  take  such 


HIS  HUMILITY  265 

delight  in  putting  on  airs.     Only  he  who  is  sure  of 
God  possesses  the  secret  of  humility. 

How  far  Christian  humility  is  removed  from  the 
miserable  caricature  of  humility  of  which  we  have 
seen  more  than  enough.  Much  of  the  so-called 
humility  of  the  world  is  not  humility  at  all.  It  is 
a  slimy,  crawling,  despicable,  snaky  thing,  a  com- 
pound of  vanity  and  falsehood.  People  who  say 
they  do  not  amount  to  anything,  they  cannot  do 
anything,  they  have  no  talent,  they  do  not  know 
anything  —  never  speak  the  truth.  They  do  not 
try  to  speak  the  truth,  they  know  they  are  not  speak- 
ing the  truth.  It  is  their  egotism  which  is  mas- 
querading under  the  form  of  humility.  There  is  no 
vainer  form  of  vanity  than  just  that  vanity  which 
apes  humility.  The  humility  which  Jesus  wants, 
and  which  he  exemplified  in  his  life,  is  a  form  of 
strength.  Only  the  strong  man  can  be  really  hum- 
ble. It  is  willingness  to  lay  aside  one's  rights,  it  is 
a  refusal  to  use  one's  power,  it  is  a  readiness  to 
come  down  and  to  make  one's  self  of  no  reputation. 
Jesus  was  always  giving  up  his  rights,  he  was  always 
refusing  to  use  his  power.  Repeatedly  he  had  the 
opportunity  to  wreak  vengeance  on  his  enemies, 
but  he  would  not  do  it  because  he  was  so  humble. 
Hanging  on  the  cross  his  enemies  taunted  him,  say- 
ing, "Let  him  save  himself."  When  they  saw  he 
would  not  save  himself  they  supposed  of  course  he 
did  not  because  he  could  not,  and  they  broke  out  in 
hateful  jeers,   "He  saved  others,  himself  he  cannot 


266  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

save."  But  they  were  mistaken.  He  had  the  power 
to  save  himself,  he  would  not  use  it.  He  could  have 
called  twelve  legions  of  angels,  but  he  would  not  call 
them.  He  was  meek  and  lowly  of  heart,  and  was 
willing  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many.  St.  Paul 
when  he  thinks  of  that  which  is  most  divine  in  Jesus 
thinks  of  his  grace  of  humility.  Notwithstanding  his 
exalted  position,  Paul  reminds  his  Philippian  con- 
verts that  Jesus  ''made  himself  of  no  reputation 
and  became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of 
the  cross.  And  therefore  hath  God  highly  exalted 
him  and  given  him  a  name  which  is  above  every 
name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  shall 
bow,  and  every  tongue  confess  that  he  is  Lord 
indeed." 


XXI 

THE  PATIENCE   OF   JESUS 


XXI 

THE  PATIENCE   OF  JESUS 

"A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break." 

—  Matthew  xii  :  20. 

Let  us  think  about  the  patience  of  Jesus.  It  will 
be  better  to  deal  first  with  the  word.  Of  course 
everybody  knows  what  patience  is  —  at  least  he 
thinks  he  does  —  and  yet  somehow  the  very  simplest 
words,  and  those  with  which  we  are  most  familiar, 
have  a  fashion  of  being  misunderstood  and  of  elud- 
ing us  when  we  try^  to  catch  them  and  compel  them 
to  give  up  their  meaning.  Patience  is  one  of  the 
common  words  of  every  man  s  vocabulary,  even 
though  it  may  not  be  one  of  his  most  conspicuous 
virtues.  Do  we  not  say:  "My  patience  was  com- 
pletely exhausted,"  "I  have  no  patience  with  such 
a  man,'  "My  patience  was  never  so  tried  in  all 
my  life,"  and  of  course  we  always  understand  what 
we  mean  when  we  use  such  language.  What,  then, 
does  patience  mean?  We  may  discover  that  this 
old  familiar  word  has  more  than  one  meaning. 
Words  are  sometimes  like  stars.  You  see  a  star 
shining  in  the  sky,  and  to  your  eye  it  is  a  single  star. 
The  astronomer  brings  his  telescope  and  to  your 
amazement  it  is  not  a  single  star  but  a  double  star, 

269 


270  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

two  blazing  suns  have  united  their  forces  to  produce 
that  shining  point  of  Hght  in  the  blue.  Just  so  there 
are  words  which  shine  like  stars  in  the  firmament  of 
speech,  single  stars  they  seem  until  we  subject  them 
to  scrutiny,  when  we  discover  that  two  meanings  burn 
within  the  limits  of  their  narrow  syllables.  This 
word  "patience"  is  not  a  single  but  a  double  star. 
First  of  all  it  means :  calmly  waiting  for  something 
hoped  for.  In  this  sense  even  the  animals  are  en- 
dowed with  the  virtue  of  patience.  See  the  cat 
watching  hour  after  hour,  waiting  for  the  appearance 
of  a  rat.  She  scarcely  moves  a  hair  and  hardly  winks 
an  eye,  waiting  calmly  for  that  happy  moment  when 
her  victim  shall  appear.  And  just  that  virtue  of 
imperturbable  waiting  is  one  of  the  great  virtues  of 
the  human  soul.  Men  have  it  in  greater  or  less 
degrees,  and  sometimes  it  mounts  to  the  level  of 
genius.  Blessed  is  the  man  who  knows  how  to 
possess  his  soul  in  patience,  waiting  with  unruffled 
mind  for  something  hoped  for.  We  find  this  virtue 
in  every  department  of  human  life.  Men  make  use 
of  it  in  the  building  of  their  fortunes.  A  man  in- 
vests his  money  in  a  piece  of  timber  land  which  will 
bring  him  no  returns  for  many  years.  The  trees 
are  small,  and  it  may  be  that  a  third  of  a  century 
must  elapse  before  the  trees  are  ready  for  the  saw- 
mill. But  the  man  invests  his  money  and  calmly 
waits  through  the  years,  knowing  that  at  the  end  of 
life  he  will  be  rich. 

But  this  meaning  does  not  exhaust  the  significance 


HIS  PATIENCE  271 

of  patience.  See  yonder  woman  tortured  by  disease, 
she  has  been  an  invalid  for  years  and  in  all  this  time 
she  has  never  cried  aloud,  never  complained,  never 
rebelled  against  her  fate.  Here,  indeed,  we  have 
something  different  from  what  we  had  in  the  pre- 
ceding cases  —  and  yet  we  call  this  patience,  we 
look  upon  the  woman  in  admiration,  almost  in  awe, 
saying,  "I  never  saw  such  patience  in  all  my  life." 
Or  look  at  yonder  man  at  the  head  of  a  great  re- 
formatory movement.  He  is  endeavoring  to  bring 
to  pass  some  mighty  change  in  church  or  state  or  in 
society,  and  he  has  met  with  opposition  at  every 
step.  For  a  while  he  makes  progress,  and  then  the 
way  is  blocked.  Enemies  multiply,  friends  forsake 
him,  hearts  grow  cold,  he  is  misunderstood,  mis- 
represented, maligned,  and  hated.  But,  neverthe- 
less, he  goes  bravely  on,  unsoured  by  opposition, 
undaunted  by  vituperation,  never  complaining, 
always  hoping,  bearing  rebuff  and  reproof  and  criti- 
cism without  a  whine  or  a  protest.  Here  again  is 
patience.  What  is  patience  ?  It  is  the  uncomplain- 
ing endurance  of  tribulation.  These,  then,  are  the 
two  ideas  which  bum  within  the  limits  of  our  word 
"patience.''  First,  it  is  the  calm  waiting  for  some- 
thing hoped  for;  second,  it  is  the  unruffled  endur- 
ance of  pain  and  trouble.  It  is  a  temper  of  the  soul, 
a  temper  that  endures,  waits,  holds  on.  A  man  may 
have  one  sort  of  patience  and  not  the  other  He  may 
have  the  ability  which  calmly  waits  for  something 
hoped  for,  and  be  quite  impatient  under  the  affliction 


2/2  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

of  bodily  pain  or  social  persecution.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  may  be  calm  as  a  marble  statue  under 
physical  infirmities,  and  may  stand  undaunted  against 
all  forms  of  social  opposition  and  still  be  unable  to 
wait  steadfastly  through  the  years  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  a  vast  design.  Patience  exists  in  all 
degrees  and  grades.  You  have  heard  of  the  patience 
of  Job.  His  is  one  of  the  immortal  experiences  of 
history.  But  how  imperfect  it  was.  His  patience 
was  the  waiting  for  something  hoped  for,  but  it  was 
not  calm  waiting ;  his  patience  was  the  endurance  of 
tribulation,  but  it  was  not  an  endurance  that  refused 
to  complain.  He  bewailed  his  fate,  he  groaned,  he 
shrieked,  he  cursed  the  day  on  which  he  was  born, 
he  plunged  and  bellowed  in  his  agony;  but  never- 
theless he  endured,  he  held  on,  he  never  surrendered. 
And  it  is  this  temper  of  endurance  which  constitutes 
the  very  heart  and  soul  of  patience,  so  that  not- 
withstanding his  manifold  imperfections.  Job  stands 
among  the  heroes  whose  names  shall  never  die. 
But  would  you  see  patience  in  both  its  forms  raised 
to  its  highest  power  without  a  defect  and  without  a 
flaw,  you  will  find  it  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

If  patience  means  the  calm  waiting  for  something 
hoped  for,  then  Jesus  had  this  in  a  superlative  degree. 
Was  any  waiting  ever  like  his  ?  He  waited  in  a  little 
country  town  in  Galilee  for  thirty  years  before  he 
entered  into  the  work  he  felt  God  had  given  him  to 
do.  We  do  not  always  stop  to  ask  ourselves  how 
much  this  must  have  cost  him.    We  Americans  are 


HIS  PATIENCE  273 

among  the  most  impatient  of  all  people.  It  is 
difficult  to  induce  many  of  our  young  men  to  wait 
long  enough  to  prepare  themselves  adequately  for 
the  business  of  life.  Thousands  of  boys  drop  out  of 
school  in  the  grammar  grades  not  because  they 
could  not  finish  their  education,  but  because  they 
are  impatient  to  go  to  work.  Of  the  young  men 
who  go  to  the  universities  many  drop  out  at  the  end 
of  the  Freshman  year,  others  at  the  end  of  the 
Sophomore,  others  at  the  end  of  the  Junior.  Only  a 
fraction  of  those  who  matriculate  ever  receive  their 
diplomas,  so  impetuous  are  American  youths,  so 
eager  are  they  to  plunge  into  life's  tumult  and  battle. 
It  is  an  ever  present  question,  therefore,  in  America 
how  to  shorten  the  curricula  and  how  to  devise  short 
cuts  to  success  and  fortune.  All  sorts  of  schools  and 
institutions  have  sprung  up  which  give  but  partial 
training.  These  schools  are  patronized  by  young 
men  who  are  impatient  to  get  on.  Now  this  im- 
patience is  often  indicative  of  extraordinary  vitality 
in  the  blood.  Men  are  so  full  of  life,  so  eager  to 
help  in  doing  the  world's  work,  they  cannot  submit 
to  the  interminable  delays  which  the  traditional  edu- 
cation involves.  Think  of  what  delay  must  have 
meant  to  Jesus.  How  his  blood  must  have  boiled 
in  little  sleepy  Nazareth  as  he  dreamed  of  the  mighty 
things  which  ought  to  be  done  and  which  he  felt  he 
could  do  in  the  great  arena.  As  man  after  man 
brushed  by  him  on  his  way  to  success  and  renown  his 
soul  must  have  been  agitated,  he  too  must  have  felt 


274  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

the  fever  to  hasten  on.  Think  of  what  his  dream 
was  and  you  will  understand  how  it  must  have 
tugged  at  him  and  made  the  years  seem  intermi- 
nable in  drowsy,  prosaic  Nazareth.  But  he  waited. 
At  twenty-one  he  said,  Not  yet.  At  twenty-five, 
Not  yet.  At  twenty-eight,  Not  yet.  It  is  in  the 
twenties  that  the  blood  is  hottest  and  the  soul  is 
most  eager  to  get  on.  Through  all  the  blazing  years 
of  youth  Jesus  waited  in  Nazareth.  It  was  not  until 
he  was  in  his  thirtieth  year  that  he  said  to  himself, 
The  time  has  come. 

A  man  at  thirty  is  more  than  one-third  of  the  way 
through  life,  and  since  Jesus  has  so  much  to  do, 
certainly  now  that  he  has  been  baptized  he  will 
plunge  into  his  work  with  alacrity,  and  push  his 
projects  with  a  vigor  which  will  startle  his  con- 
temporaries. Not  so.  He  will  calmly  meditate  on 
the  best  ways  of  helping  his  day  and  generation. 
The  leaders  of  the  people  were  looking  for  a  man 
who  would  imitate  the  methods  of  the  men  who 
had  hitherto  proved  themselves  masters  of  the 
destinies  of  nations.  It  was  clear  to  every  eye  that 
by  means  of  the  sword  the  finest  execution  could  be 
done;  that  by  military  power  the  greatest  results 
could  be  most  speedily  achieved ;  that  by  political 
genius  established  wrongs  could  be  unthroned  and 
defeated,  and  rights  could  be  exalted.  Jesus  listened 
to  these  voices,  they  came  up  from  all  directions 
thundering  in  his  ears.  In  imagination  he  saw  him- 
self on  the  top  of  a  lofty  mountain  with  the  kingdoms 


HIS  PATIENCE  275 

of  the  world  lying  stretched  out  below  him.  He 
saw  how  he  might  gain  possession  of  them  by  adopt- 
ing methods  employed  by  those  who  had  lived  before 
his  day. 

But  having  considered  the  whole  situation  he 
said,  "No,  I  will  not  do  what  others  have  done, 
I  will  choose  the  slow  and  toilsome  way;  I  will  not 
cut  the  knot,  I  will  untie  it;  I  will  not  push  the 
world,  I  will  draw  it;  I  will  not  subdue  the  world 
by  military  methods,  I  will  heal  it  by  the  sympathy 
of  human  hearts."  With  this  conviction  firmly  es- 
tablished in  his  soul  he  began  his  ministry  in  Gali- 
lee. To  the  men  who  stood  around  him  he  was 
always  slow.  *  Why  don't  you  go  on?  Why  don't 
you  hurry?  Why  don't  you  bring  things  to  pass? 
Why  don't  you  say  everything  you  are  going  to  say  ? 
Why  don't  you  do  everything  you  are  going  to  do? 
Why  don't  you  do  it  now?"  —  those  were  the  ques- 
tions which  were  thrown  at  him  by  friends  and 
enemies  all  along  the  way.  But  when  they  urged 
him  to  hurry,  his  reply  was,  "  Are  there  not  twelve 
hours  in  the  day?"  or,  "My  hour  is  not  yet  come." 
And  instead  of  setting  all  the  land  afire  he  tried,  so 
it  seemed,  to  suppress  himself,  to  hold  his  disciples 
back,  to  keep  his  name  from  becoming  glorious. 
When  he  healed  sick  men  he  said  to  them,  *  Tell  no 
man." 

When  his  disciples  saw  him  all  radiant  on  the 
mountain  he  cautioned  them  to  keep  still.  The 
result  was  that  at  the  end  of  his  life  he  had  made 


2/6  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

only  one  hundred  and  twenty  disciples.  What  a  piti- 
ful outcome  of  a  life  so  arduous,  of  work  so  strenuous 
and  so  unceasing !  But  the  sight  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty  men  did  not  daunt  him,  he  died  with  content- 
ment in  his  heart.  "Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  over- 
come the  world.'  When?  Not  then,  not  a  hun- 
dred years  after  his  death,  nor  a  thousand  years,  nor 
ten  thousand  years  after.  Nevertheless  he  has  the 
tone  of  victory  in  his  voice,  knowing  that  in  spite  of 
all  the  obstacles,  delays,  and  retrogressions,  the  out- 
come is  absolutely  certain.  Before  Pontius  Pilate, 
the  Roman  procurator,  he  says,  "To  this  end  was  I 
bom  and  for  this  cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that 
I  should  bear  witness  unto  the  truth.'  He  did  his 
work  and  died.  The  progress  has  been  slow,  but 
his  patient  heart  is  still  untroubled,  and  from  his 
throne  of  glory  he  looks  upon  the  slow-moving  ages, 
patient  with  the  feeble  efforts  of  his  followers,  willing 
to  wait  for  the  reluctant  submission  of  rebellious 
hearts,  knowing  that  by  and  by,  sometime,  some- 
where, the  kingdom  will  be  established  and  all  his 
dreams  fulfilled.    That  is  patience  at  its  climax. 

But  this  does  not  exhaust  the  patience  of  Jesus. 
The  way  of  a  reformer  is  never  smooth,  and  the  way 
which  Jesus  traveled  was  the  thorniest  which  human 
feet  have  ever  trod.  It  was  literal  truth  that  he 
came  unto  his  own  and  his  own  received  him  not, 
the  light  shone  in  the  darkness  but  the  darkness 
comprehended  it  not.  With  a  love  that  caused  his 
heart  to  glow  he  knocked  at  the  door  in  Jerusalem, 


HIS  PATIENCE  277 

but  the  men  who  kept  the  door  refused  to  open  it. 
He  knocked  at  the  door  in  Nazareth,  the  door  was 
opened  and  then  shut  in  his  face.  He  traveled 
throughout  GaUlee,  and  in  city  after  city  he  met  with 
nothing  but  repulse ;  but  he  was  never  discouraged, 
he  never  complained.  Wherever  he  went  he  was 
pursued  by  men  who  were  his  enemies.  They 
watched  him  in  order  that  they  might  trip  him. 
They  questioned  him  in  order  that  they  might  get 
him  into  a  trap.  How  difficult  it  is  to  speak  if  one 
is  speaking  in  the  presence  of  people  who  are  watch- 
ing each  sentence,  determined  if  possible  to  catch 
the  speaker  in  an  error.  Wherever  he  went  his  con- 
duct was  scrutinized  by  eyes  that  were  green  with 
envy.  Everything  he  did  was  criticised,  every  action 
called  forth  a  storm  of  fresh  abuse.  His  enemies 
gathered  around  him  like  a  swarm  of  mosquitoes 
biting  him,  like  a  swarm  of  hornets  stinging  him  — 
but  he  never  complained.  They  nagged  at  him, 
pelted  him  with  abusive  epithets,  sowed  the  land 
with  lies  about  him,  but  he  never  grew  bitter.  We 
have  known  many  a  good  man  to  grow  sour  simply 
because  he  had  been  misunderstood  by  a  few  people. 
Many  a  good  woman  has  grown  bitter  because  of 
unfortunate  experiences  with  those  who  were  her 
fellow-workers  in  the  church.  This  Man  of  Galilee 
knew  little  but  misunderstanding  and  ingratitude 
and  criticism  and  abuse;  but  he  never  complained 
and  at  the  end  of  the  day  he  was  as  sweet  as  at 
dawn.    Long  before  he  came  somebody  had  said 


2/8  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

that  when  the  supreme  man  arrived  he  would  sub- 
mit to  tribulation  without  complaining.  As  men 
looked  upon  this  Man  of  Galilee  they  were  reminded 
of  the  great  line  of  the  prophet,  "As  a  lamb  before 
the  shearer  is  dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his  mouth." 
And  if  Jesus  was  patient  with  his  enemies  he  was 
equally  patient  with  his  friends,  and  probably  his 
friends  tried  him  no  less  sorely  than  his  enemies. 
His  friends  did  not  understand  him.  His  own 
mother  and  brothers  were  not  in  sympathy  with  him. 
The  disciples  to  whom  he  gave  himself  with  a  devo- 
tion that  has  never  been  equalled  were  constantly 
failing  to  catch  the  import  of  the  things  he  told  them. 
They  were  slow  and  stupid,  petty  and  selfish,  unable 
to  take  in  the  great  things  he  had  to  say  —  but  he 
was  patient  with  them.  Even  on  the  last  night  of 
his  earthly  life,  when  he  met  them  in  a  private  house 
in  Jerusalem  to  have  a  last  talk  with  them,  they 
quarrelled  among  themselves  as  to  their  places  at  the 
table.  But  even  this  brings  from  him  no  more  than 
an  affectionate  rebuke.  He  simply  takes  a  basin  of 
water  and  performs  the  work  which  was  ordinarily 
performed  by  slaves,  rinsing  the  dust  from  their 
unsandalled  feet,  —  by  this  act  teaching  what  he  had 
been  trying  to  teach  them  from  the  beginning,  that 
he  who  would  be  greatest  must  be  the  servant  of  all. 
There  is  a  beautiful  quotation  in  the  Old  Testament 
which  the  apostle  Matthew  has  put  at  the  centre  of 
his  Gospel,  throwing  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  im- 
pression which  Jesus  made  upon  those  who  came 


HIS  PATIENCE  279 

nearest  to  him.  After  he  had  vanished  from  their 
sight,  the  beauty  of  his  character  came  up  before  them 
as  they  had  never  been  able  to  see  it  in  the  days  of 
his  humihation,  and  among  the  beautiful  portraits 
which  men  in  preceding  generations  had  sketched 
of  an  ideal  character  Matthew  felt  that  not  one  more 
fully  portrayed  Jesus  of  Nazareth  than  this  one, 
"A  bruised  reed  he  shall  not  break,  and  smoking 
flax  he  shall  not  quench."  This  was  his  temper 
whether  he  was  dealing  with  foes  or  friends.  He 
demanded  much  of  his  disciples,  but  he  did  not 
demand  it  all  at  once.  He  kept  saying  if  a  man  has 
even  a  little  faith,  even  so  small  as  a  grain  of  mustard 
seed,  he  has  enough  to  start  with,  and  by  means  of 
this  he  will  be  able  to  work  wonders.  Great  men  have 
oftentimes  been  notoriously  impatient  with  their 
weaker  and  more  incompetent  brethren;  strong 
themselves  they  could  not  sympathize  with  weakness ; 
clear  in  their  own  conceptions  they  could  not  endure 
the  stupidity  of  those  who  floundered  in  mist  and  fog. 
The  bruised  reed  they  had  no  use  for,  the  smoking 
wick  they  despised  and  quenched.  But  the  patient 
Man  of  Galilee  had  a  temper  altogether  different. 
He  sympathized  with  weakness,  he  was  considerate 
of  mental  dulness,  he  was  long-suffering  in  the 
presence  of  moral  awkwardness.  Even  a  bruised 
reed  he  would  not  break,  and  even  a  smoking  wick 
he  would  coax  back  into  flame. 

And  ever  since  Jesus  lived  and  taught,  men  have 
loved  to  think  that  God  is  patient.     To  every  fol- 


280  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

lower  of  Jesus  the  Almighty  is  a  long-suffering  God. 
He  has  vast  plans  running  through  the  ages,  and  He 
is  willing  to  wait  for  their  fulfilment.  Men  look 
aroimd  them  at  the  woe  and  havoc,  the  suffering  and 
the  tragedy,  and  say:  "How  could  God  ever  make 
a  world  like  this  ?  How  can  He  endure  it  to  have 
these  things  go  on?  "  They  do  not  understand  that 
He  is  patient,  infinitely  patient,  and  is  willing  to 
wait  until  human  hearts  surrender,  and  by  their 
obedience  bring  the  long  and  bitter  night  to  an  end. 
Not  only  does  He  wait,  but  He  also  suffers  indignity 
at  our  hands  without  blazing  up  in  anger  and  con- 
suming us.  We  may  be  ungrateful,  insolent,  irrev- 
erent, rebellious ;  we  may  refuse  to  do  the  things  He 
asks  us  to  do,  and  persist  in  doing  the  things  that 
are  contrary  to  His  will ;  we  may  injure  ourselves 
and  hurt  others,  nevertheless  He  will  not  strike  us 
down.  He  will  give  us  yet  another  day,  and  still 
another,  saying,  "Perhaps  to-morrow  the  sin  will 
be  repented  of  and  the  prodigal  will  come  home." 


XXII 
THE   COURAGE   OF   JESUS 


\ 


XXII 

THE  COURAGE  OF  JESUS 

"Fear  not." 

—  Luke  V  :  lo. 

He  who  speaks  of  courage  speaks  of  a  live  sub- 
ject. It  is  a  virtue  which  everybody  admires  and 
which  everybody  has  admired  from  the  beginning. 
There  has  never  been  a  nation  which  did  not  admire 
courageous  men.  There  is  not  an  age  known  to 
history  in  which  heroism  has  not  been  deemed  a 
lovely  and  a  precious  thing.  The  old  Egyptians 
gloried  in  their  bravery,  and  so  also  did  the  Assyr- 
ians, the  Babylonians,  the  Persians,  the  Macedo- 
nians, the  Romans,  and  the  Greeks ;  and  the  very 
quality  which  was  rated  so  highly  thousands  of 
years  before  Jesus  came  is  also  gloried  in  by  the 
Boers  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  the  Japanese  of 
the  twentieth.  When  we  deal,  therefore,  with  cour- 
age we  are  dealing  with  a  virtue  which  is  not  peculiar 
to  any  race,  or  confined  to  any  generation,  or  deemed 
a  virtue  by  any  one  religion.  It  is  one  of  the  ele- 
mental tempers  of  the  human  spirit,  one  of  the  foun- 
dation stones  in  the  great  structure  of  character,  one 
of  the  shining  qualities  of  the  wonderful  being  who 
is  known  as  man.  Is  there  a  man  so  base  that  he 
283 


284  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

does  not  covet  courage?  Is  there  one  so  low  he 
would  not  be  proud  to  be  counted  brave?  There 
are  only  three  words  in  our  English  speech  which 
pierce  the  heart  to  the  very  centre :  one  is  thief,  the 
second  is  liar,  the  third  is  coward.  Coward  is  the 
most  damning  of  them  all. 

When  we  come,  therefore,  to  the  study  of  the 
ideal  man  we  might  expect  to  find  him  giving  us  a 
wonderful  exhibition  of  courage.  And  this  is  indeed 
what  we  find :  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth  we  find  brav- 
ery at  its  best,  courage  at  its  loftiest,  heroism  at  its 
climax. 

There  are  different  kinds  of  courage.  There  is  a 
courage  which  we  may  call  physical.  It  runs  in  the 
blood,  it  is  a  kind  of  instinct.  This  sort  of  courage 
is  not  peculiar  to  man,  it  is  possessed  also  by  the 
brutes.  The  bulldog  has  it  and  so  also  has  the 
weasel.  It  is  possessed  by  man  in  all  the  stages  of 
his  development.  It  is  an  indifference  to  danger, 
a  contempt  for  suffering  and  for  death.  But  the 
courage  of  Jesus  was  not  this.  His  was  a  higher  and 
nobler  possession.  His  was  the  courage  of  the  mind, 
the  heroism  of  the  heart.  It  was  a  sober  and  rea- 
soned thing.  He  deliberately  counted  the  cost  and 
paid  it.  Nor  was  his  courage  military.  Military 
courage  is  the  most  common  of  all  forms  of  cour- 
age in  the  world,  and  one  of  the  earliest  developed. 
Military  courage  is  the  courage  which  the  soldier 
has  in  the  time  of  battle.  In  time  of  battle  men 
move  in  masses,  the  very  momentum  of  the  move- 


HIS  COURAGE  285 

ment  carries  them  onward.  There  is  an  excitement 
in  battle  which  thrills  the  nerves  and  heats  the  blood ; 
men  are  beside  themselves,  and  are  carried  forward 
by  forces  which  are  not  their  own.  The  courage  of 
war  is  spectacular,  appealing  to  the  eye  because  the 
paraphernalia  of  war  is  splendid,  the  waving  flag, 
the  fife  and  drum,  the  glittering  steel,  the  measured 
tread  of  marching  men  —  all  this  assists  the  heart 
to  scoff  at  danger  and  to  mock  at  death.  But  splen- 
did as  this  is  it  is  common  and  has  always  been 
abundant.  The  lowest  races  possess  it  as  highly 
developed  as  the  highest.  You  never  can  get  courage 
going  beyond  the  military  courage  which  the  Japanese 
displayed  in  the  recent  war.  And  that  courage  was 
not  a  whit  superior  to  the  courage  displayed  at 
Gettysburg,  and  the  courage  at  Gettysburg  was  not 
a  bit  finer  than  the  courage  at  Bunker  Hill  and 
Waterloo,  and  that  did  not  surpass  the  courage  at 
Thermopylae,  nor  did  that  outstrip  the  courage  mani- 
fested by  the  Indian  braves  who  laughed  at  death  on 
this  island  before  Henry  Hudson  sailed  up  the  river 
which  now  bears  his  name.  There  never  has  been 
an  advance  in  military  courage  since  the  world 
began.  From  the  very  beginning  the  courage  of 
battle  has  been  fuU-statured  and  complete.  The 
courage  of  our  Lord  was  not  military,  it  was  the 
courage  which  manifested  itself  in  isolation.  There 
was  nobody  to  march  with  him.  He  marched  alone. 
Palestine  was  filled  with  evils,  he  alone  was  brave 
enough  to  strike  them.     Injustice  lifted  its  hideous 


286  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

head,  and  he  alone  resisted  it.  Hypocrisy  made  a 
mockery  of  religion,  and  he  alone  stabbed  it.  He 
trod  the  winepress  alone.  Even  the  men  whom  he 
succeeded  in  attracting  to  him  left  him  and  fled  at 
the  final  hour.  But  even  then  he  did  not  wince  or 
falter,  saying,  ''I  am  alone  and  yet  not  alone,  for 
the  Father  is  with  me." 

There  is  also  such  a  thing  as  occasional  courage, 
—  courage  that  is  born  of  some  feverish  moment, 
drawn  from  the  heart  by  some  overwhelming  dis- 
aster. This  is  the  courage  which  we  see  displayed 
in  time  of  a  great  fire,  or  of  a  great  flood,  or  of  a 
great  wreck  on  the  sea.  What  splendid  deeds  of 
daring  firemen  do  in  rescuing  men  and  women  from 
burning  buildings  at  the  risk  of  their  own  lives! 
How  it  thrills  the  blood  to  see  men  leap  into  the 
life-boat,  and  make  their  way  out  over  the  angry 
sea  and  rescue  the  sailors  clinging  to  the  rigging  of 
a  sinking  ship!  This  is  courage  which  is  indeed 
sublime,  but  it  is  not  equal  to  the  courage  of  repose. 
Disaster  heats  the  blood  and  kindles  a  fire  in  the 
mind  which  makes  it  easy  for  the  soul  to  dare  great 
things ;  but  the  courage  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the 
courage  of  the  quiet  and  commonplace  days,  courage 
that  had  to  be  manifested  hour  by  hour  along  the 
dusty  road  when  there  was  nothing  to  heat  the  blood 
or  stir  the  mind  to  lofty  moods. 

If  you  were  to  paint  Jesus  as  a  hero,  in  what  situa- 
tion would  you  sketch  him?  Would  you  think  of 
him  on  that  great  day  on  which  he  cleansed  the 


HIS  COURAGE  287 

Temple,  driving  out  the  cattle,  overturning  the  tables 
of  the  money-changers,  saying  to  sellers  of  doves, 
''Take  these  things  hence"?  Would  you  paint 
him  as  he  appeared  when  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem 
he  stood  up  and  faced  his  implacable  foes,  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  and  hurled  at  them  sentences  which  at 
the  distance  of  nineteen  hundred  years  stil  smoke  like 
thunderbolts  ?  Or  would  you  paint  him  as  he  came 
from  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  and  startled  the  band 
of  men  who  have  come  to  arrest  him  by  saying,  *'I 
am  the  man  you  seek"  ?  Or  would  you  picture  him 
going  to  Golgotha  saying  to  the  women  who  be- 
wailed his  fate,  "Weep  not  for  me,  but  for  your- 
selves and  your  children  weep"  ?  All  these  situations 
I  admit  are  picturesque  and  thrilling.  Every  reader 
of  the  New  Testament  catches  them  up  and  holds 
them  forever  in  his  memory.  In  each  one  of  them 
we  see  heroism  in  a  high  and  lovely  form,  but  these 
are  not  the  scenes  to  which  I  call  your  attention  at 
the  present  moment. 

Would  you  ask  me  to  give  you  an  illustration  of 
the  courage  of  Jesus'  heart,  I  would  take  you  first 
of  all  to  Nazareth  on  that  day  on  which  for  the  first 
time  he  announced  his  mission  to  the  men  and 
women  who  had  knov/n  him  from  boyhood.  It  was 
necessary  for  him  to  say  things  which  would  offend, 
and  he  said  them.  He  was  to  preach  the  truth,  but 
he  could  not  preach  the  truth  without  cutting  across 
the  grain  of  the  prejudices  of  these  people.  He  went 
calmly  onward,  however,  and  preached  the  truth. 


288  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

To  estrange  the  hearts  of  those  who  have  known  and 
esteemed  us  for  many  years,  to  cut  one's  self  off  from 
the  respect  and  sympathy  and  love  of  those  in  whose 
friendship  we  have  found  solace  and  delight  —  that 
is  hard  indeed.  And  that  is  what  Jesus  did  on  that 
awful  day  in  Nazareth.  By  the  simple  speaking  of 
the  truth  he  alienated  from  him  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  the  people  in  whose  midst  he  had  grown  to  man- 
hood and  whose  high  regard  had  been  one  of  the 
most  valuable  of  all  his  earthly  treasures.  He  was 
a  courageous  man  that  day,  and  equally  courageous 
was  he  in  the  streets  of  Capernaum  when  he  talked 
to  that  crowd  of  five  thousand  men  whom  he  had  fed 
a  little  while  before  in  the  desert  beyond  the  Sea  of 
Galilee.  He  came  into  the  world  to  bear  witness 
to  the  truth,  but  men  were  not  willing  to  receive  it. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  address  every  one  was  en- 
thusiastic, but  as  he  spoke  the  great  crowd  began 
to  melt  away.  The  five  thousand  dwindled  down 
to  four  thousand,  the  four  thousand  decreased  to 
three  thousand,  the  three  thousand  sank  to  two 
thousand,  the  two  thousand  became  one  thousand, 
the  one  thousand  fell  to  five  hundred,  the  five  hun- 
dred to  one  hundred,  the  one  hundred  to  fifty,  the 
fifty  to  twenty-five,  and  these  at  last  became  twenty, 
the  twenty  dwindled  to  fifteen,  and  at  last  only 
twelve  men  stood  beside  him,  and  these  twelve  had 
such  doleful,  wavering  faces  that  he  said  to  them, 
"Will  ye  also  go  away?"  What  is  there  harder  in 
this  world  than  that  ?   A  religious  teacher  finds  his  joy 


HIS  COURAGE  289 

in  the  ears  and  hearts  of  those  who  hear  him.  To  hold 
them,  to  teach  them,  to  inspire  them — this  is  indeed 
his  glory,  his  all.  But  to  teach  the  truth  and  go  on 
teaching  it  even  though  the  congregation  grows  less 
and  less  and  less,  that  requires  the  forthputting  of 
the  very  highest  temper  of  the  soul.  It  was  just  that 
kind  of  courage  which  Jesus  had.  The  courage 
which  he  manifested  in  Capernaum  was  manifested 
everywhere. 

It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  offend  society  and  to 
offend  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  lose  caste  and  stand- 
ing. The  people  in  Jesus*  day  were  great  stick- 
lers for  forms  of  fasting.  Jesus  minimized  the 
value  of  them.  They  were  exceedingly  scrupulous 
in  regard  to  sabbatical  laws.  Jesus  could  not  keep 
them,  he  did  not  believe  in  keeping  them.  They 
were  punctilious  in  regard  to  the  number  of  times 
they  washed  their  hands  before  they  sat  down  to  eat. 
Jesus  had  no  time  for  such  elaborate  foolery.  The 
best  people  of  his  day  divided  things  into  clean  and 
unclean,  people  into  clean  and  unclean  —  Jesus 
could  pay  no  attention  to  these  distinctions.  All 
men  were  his  brethren,  and  so  he  associated  with 
people  who  had  lost  caste.  By  so  doing  he  lost  his 
own  reputation.  Has  any  one  courage  enough  here 
to  do  that?  He  went  contrary  to  the  established 
usages  of  the  best  society  of  his  day;  he  trampled 
on  conventionalities  which  were  counted  sacred  as 
the  law  of  the  Eternal.  And  the  result  was  he  was 
suspected,  shunned,  and  abhorred.     But  he  did  even 


1 


290  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

more  than  this:  he  surrendered  the  good  opinion 
which  many  of  the  people  had  formed  of  him. 
When  he  first  appeared  the  air  was  filled  with  ap- 
plause, men  looked  upon  him  as  the  promised  Mes- 
siah. The  land  blazed  with  enthusiasm.  The 
people  had  certain  ideals,  and  Jesus  could  not  con- 
form to  them.  They  had  fixed  ideas,  and  Jesus 
could  not  carry  them  out.  He  threw  cold  water 
upon  these  fires  of  enthusiasm  and  they  died  down 
lower  and  lower,  until  at  last  there  was  nothing  but 
a  great  stretch  of  smoldering  ashes,  and  he  stood 
in  the  centre  of  the  ashes  the  most  forsaken  and 
hated  of  men.  It  takes  tremendous  courage  to  lay 
aside  one's  reputation,  and  also  to  forego  the  bliss 
of  popular  applause.  But  he  did  a  braver  thing 
even  than  this :  he  gave  up  the  good  opinion  of  the 
best  people  of  his  day.  He  was  reverent,  religious, 
sensitive,  but  there  were  certain  things  it  was  neces- 
sary for  him  to  say  because  they  were  true  things, 
and  he  said  them.  By  saying  them  he  exposed  him- 
self to  the  charge  of  being  a  blasphemer,  but  he  said 
them.  He  was  willing  to  do  his  duty  even  though 
by  the  doing  of  it  he  won  for  himself  the  ignominy 
of  being  counted  a  blasphemer,  a  lunatic,  and  a 
traitor. 

Only  the  very  loftiest  heroism  can  meet  such  a 
test  as  that.  But  we  have  not  yet  reached  the 
climax.  If  it  is  difficult  for  a  man  to  withstand  his 
enemies,  much  more  difficult  is  it  for  him  to  with- 
stand his  friends.     There  are  many  men  who  can 


HIS  COURAGE 


291 


resist  the  people  who  are  opposed  to  them  who 
cannot  withstand  the  opinions  and  wishes  of  their 
friends.  Many  of  us  can  pour  denunciation  on  the 
men  who  hate  us,  but  we  succumb  at  once  to  the 
gracious  words  of  those  who  wish  us  well.  Peter 
was  Jesus'  dearest  friend;  but  when  Peter  on  a 
certain  occasion  says  to  him,  "Far  be  it  from  thee, 
Lord,  this  shall  never  happen  unto  thee,"  quick  as 
a  flash  the  reply  comes,  "Get  thee  behind  me, 
Satan."  James  and  John  present  what  seems  to 
them  a  most  reasonable  request  —  Jesus  says,  "  I 
cannot  grant  this."  Judas  was  one  of  the  most 
trusted  of  the  apostolic  company  —  so  trusted  that 
he  was  made  the  treasurer  of  the  band ;  but  Jesus 
by  the  simple  telling  of  the  truth  and  the  living  of 
a  perfect  life  estranged  the  affections  of  this  man 
until  at  last  he  became  his  betrayer.  Many  of  you 
have  courage  suflicient  to  stand  against  your  ene- 
mies, how  many  of  you  can  resist  the  influence  and 
wishes  of  your  friends? 

But  if  you  want  illustrations  of  the  courage  of 
Jesus,  you  must  take  the  entire  New  Testament,  for 
all  the  Gospels  are  a  portrait  of  a  hero.  The  story 
of  Jesus'  life  is  the  most  heroic  record  ever  written, 
and  any  man  who  wishes  to  increase  the  bravery  of 
his  heart  must  read  this  book  day  and  night.  See 
him  as  he  sets  his  face  steadfastly  to  go  to  Jerusalem, 
where  he  knows  they  are  going  to  scourge  him  and 
spit  upon  him  and  kill  him.  His  friends  endeavor 
to  dissuade  him,  they  strive  to  hold  him  back.     He 


292  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

keeps  steadily  on,  knowing  that  at  Jerusalem  he  will 
give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many.  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  English- 
men of  the  last  century,  in  the  year  1891  wrote  a 
letter  to  his  wife  telling  her  that  he  had  quit  politics 
once  and  forever.  He  said:  "More  than  two- 
thirds,  in  all  probability,  of  my  life  is  over,  and  I 
will  not  spend  the  remainder  of  my  years  in  beating 
my  head  against  a  stone  wall.  There  has  been  no 
consideration,  no  indulgence,  no  memory  or  grati- 
tude —  nothing  but  spite,  malice,  and  abuse.  I  am 
quite  tired  and  dead  sick  of  it  all,  and  will  not  con- 
tinue political  life  any  longer.'*  How  natural,  how 
human  that  sounds !  Haven't  you  heard  men  say 
it  ?  Possibly  some  of  you  have  said  it  yourself.  You 
have  engaged  in  some  reform,  and  have  been  mis- 
represented and  abused.  You  have  turned  away, 
saying,  '*I  am  tired,  I  am  sick."  Maybe  you  were 
a  worker  in  the  church;  you  were  misrepresented, 
you  were  thwarted ;  you  cast  up  your  work,  say- 
ing, "I  am  tired,  I  am  sick."  Why  do  men  talk 
thus?  Because  they  are  cowards.  Only  cowards 
surrender,  only  cowards  get  tired  and  sick.  Jesus 
steadfastly  set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem  and  never 
turned  back  until  he  reached  the  cross.  See  him 
as  he  goes  onward,  trampling  on  all  the  precious 
things  of  earth,  putting  under  his  feet  the  ambitions 
by  which  the  hearts  of  other  men  are  fired,  tram- 
pling into  the  dust  the  prizes  and  the  joys  of  life. 
Make  out  a  list  of  the  things  which  you  count  most 


HIS  COURAGE  293 

valuable  and  worth  while,  and  you  will  see  that  Jesus 
placed  every  one  of  them  beneath  his  feet.  With  the 
tread  of  a  conqueror  he  goes  on  to  his  death,  saying, 
"I  do  always  those  things  that  are  pleasing  unto 
Him." 

And  yet  his  courage  never  overleaps  itself 
and  becomes  audacity  or  recklessness.  Some  men 
have  found  fault  with  him  because  on  certain  occa- 
sions he  escaped  and  hid  himself.  He  retired  into 
out-of-the  way  places,  not  because  he  was  a  coward, 
but  because  he  was  so  brave.  It  is  easier  to  die  than 
to  live  a  life  such  as  Jesus  lived.  He  hid  himself 
sometimes  to  escape  the  fury  of  his  enemies,  because 
he  desired  to  remain  a  little  longer  in  order  that  he 
might  establish  in  men's  hearts  the  truths  that  would 
redeem  the  world.  Thousands  of  men  every  year 
leap  off  this  planet  by  self-destruction.  They  do  it 
because  they  are  cowards.  Jesus  bore  the  burden 
and  endured  the  cross  until  his  work  had  been  com- 
pleted. And  so  with  such  a  temper  we  are  not 
surprised  to  find  him  at  every  stage  of  his  trial  act- 
ing like  the  hero  that  he  was.  When  the  soldiers 
buffeted  him  and  cuffed  him,  cursed  him  and  spat 
upon  him,  he  never  said  a  word.  He  was  so  cour- 
ageous that  he  dared  to  be  silent.  As  a  sheep  before 
her  shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his  mouth. 

When  he  comes  at  last  to  stand  before  Pontius 
Pilate,  he  stands  so  erect  that  Pilate  is  afraid  of  him, 
and  the  heart  of  the  Roman  procurator  flutters  when       \ 
Jesus  says  to  him,  ^*  For  this  cause  was  I  bom,  unto 


294  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

this  end  came  I  into  the  world,  to  bear  witness  to  the 
truth."  And  when  at  last  they  nail  him  to  the  cross 
the  only  thing  he  will  say  is,  "Father,  forgive  them, 
for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  Rousseau  was 
right  when  he  wrote  his  immortal  line,  "If  the 
life  and  death  of  Socrates  were  those  of  a  sage, 
the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  are  those  of  a  God." 


XXIII 
THE  INDIGNATION  OF   JESUS 


XXIII 
THE  INDIGNATION  OF  JESUS 

"And  when  he  had  looked  round  about  on  them  with  anger." 

—  Mark  iii  :  5. 

There  are  certain  moods  and  feelings  which  we 
are  reluctant  to  ascribe  to  Jesus,  because  they  are  so 
common  and  so  human.  Characteristics  which  are 
conspicuous  and  disconcerting  in  ourselves,  we  do 
not  readily  associate  with  him.  For  instance,  was 
it  possible  for  Jesus  to  be  angry?  If  it  was,  he  was 
amazingly  like  ourselves.  The  humblest  and  least 
gifted  of  us  are  adepts  in  the  realm  of  indignation. 
Our  capacity  for  wrath  was  manifested  in  us  early, 
and  we  have  developed  it  by  constant  use.  No  emo- 
tion is  more  nearly  universal  and  none  is  more  easily 
aroused.  The  very  universality  of  the  experience 
makes  us  reluctant  to  attribute  it  to  one  who  is  at 
so  many  points  above  us,  and  whose  life,  however 
like  our  own,  has  in  it  so  many  things  which  are 
unique. 

Moreover,  anger  is  associated  in  our  mind  with 
infirmity.  Much  of  our  own  anger  has  been  of  the 
earth  earthy.  It  has  been  a  boiling  of  the  blood,  full 
of  sound  and  fury,  having  no  ethical  significance. 
Sometimes  it  has  been  a  burst  of  petulance,  an 

297 


298  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

explosion  of  nervous  energy,  a  sort  of  madness  bor- 
dering on  the  frontiers  of  insanity.  While  the  fever 
was  upon  us  we  felt  our  wrath  was  justifiable,  but 
on  the  cooling  of  the  blood  we  repented  in  sackcloth 
and  ashes.  We  have  also  noticed  what  anger  does 
for  others.  It  has  not  escaped  us  that  when  men 
and  women  are  angry  they  usually  make  fools  of 
themselves.  This  fact  has  made  a  deep  impression 
on  us.  Most  of  the  indignation  which  we  have 
known  has  been  so  childish  or  so  brutish,  so  full  of 
fury  and  of  bitterness,  that  we  find  it  hard  to  give 
it  place  in  the  experience  of  a  strong  and  holy  man. 
So  prone  is  anger  to  mix  itself  with  base  and  un- 
lovely elements,  and  so  frequently  does  it  stir  up 
the  mud  at  the  bottom  of  the  soul,  that  it  has  been 
often  classed  among  the  vices  as  a  passion  which  is 
always  ignoble,  and  therefore  to  be  condemned, 
resisted,  strangled.  It  was  thus  that  the  Stoics 
taught,  contending  that  ever  to  be  moved  by  anger 
is  a  sign  of  weakness  and  unworthy  of  a  full-grown 
man.  The  philosophy  of  the  Stoics  is  not  consciously 
accepted  by  us,  but  the  considerations  which  led 
them  to  their  estimate  of  anger  are  still  operative  in 
us  all.  It  is  not  easy  to  free  one's  self  from  the  feeling 
that  anger  has  something  sinful  in  it,  or  that  if  anger 
is  not  actually  sinful,  it  is  at  any  rate  unlovely,  a 
defect  or  flaw  in  conduct,  a  deformity  in  character 
from  which  the  lovers  of  the  beautiful  and  good  may 
wisely  pray  to  be  delivered.  It  is  because  of  this 
assumption  that  anger  is  in  its  essence  sinful  that 


HIS  INDIGNATION  299 

many  persons  find  it  impossible  to  think  of  Jesus  in 
an  angry  mood.  When  the  New  Testament  says 
that  he  was  angry  they  gUde  over  the  sentence  hur- 
riedly, giving  the  words  a  Pickwickian  sense,  and 
breathe  more  freely  when  they  have  come  out  again 
into  a  paragraph  which  portrays  his  tenderness  and 
love.  Once  decide  that  anger  is  a  sinful  or  an  animal 
passion,  and  you  must  deny  it  a  place  in  the  portrait 
of  an  ideal  man. 

But  the  evangelists  were  not  Stoics,  and  they  were 
not  handicapped  by  the  notions  which  bewilder  us. 
They  felt  that  they  must  write  down  clearly  what 
they  saw  and  heard,  and  prompted  thus  to  tell 
a  round,  unvarnished  tale  they  do  not  hesitate  to 
inform  us  that  Jesus  sometimes  blazed  with  anger. 
The  blast  of  his  scorn  was  so  hot  that  it  frightened 
and  scorched  those  on  whom  it  fell.  They  tell  us 
that  it  was  inhumanity  and  insincerity  which  always 
kindled  his  heart  to  furnace  heat.  When  he  saw 
men  —  ordained  religious  leaders  of  the  people  — 
more  interested  in  their  petty  regulations  than  in  the 
welfare  of  their  fellow-men,  his  eyes  burned  with  holy 
fire.  Those  who  were  present  never  forgot  the 
flash  of  his  eye  as  he  slowly  looked  round  upon  the 
pedants  whose  hardness  of  heart  he  held  in  abhor- 
rence. He  despised  the  lying  superstitions  which 
had  accumulated  around  the  idea  of  death,  and 
loathed  the  mummery  which  attended  the  burial  of 
the  dead.  The  hollow  bowlings  of  paid  mourners 
in  the  presence  of  the  holy  mystery  of  death  aroused 


300  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

his  soul  to  indignant  protest.  Any  darkening  of  the 
world  by  cruelty  or  craft  brought  his  soul  to  its  feet 
fiery-eyed  and  defiant.  He  was  angered  by  the 
desecration  of  the  Temple.  The  sordid  wretches 
who  cared  nothing  for  anthems  and  prayers  and 
everything  for  money,  kindled  a  fire  in  him  which 
well-nigh  consumed  him.  The  miscreants  who  fled 
before  him  had  never  seen  such  a  flame  as  darted 
from  his  eyes.  That  a  building  erected  for  the  pur- 
pose of  adorning  the  name  of  God  should  be  con- 
verted into  a  market  was  so  abhorrent  to  his  great 
soul  that  he  was  swept  onward  into  action  which 
astounded  his  disciples  and  which  has  been  to  many 
a  scandal  ever  since.  No  one  can  understand  the 
cleansing  of  the  Temple  who  has  never  experienced 
the  force  and  heat  of  righteous  indignation.  There 
are  many  sentences  from  his  lips  which  after  the 
lapse  of  nineteen  hundred  years  still  burn  with 
fervent  heat.  Who  can  read  the  parable  of  Dives 
and  Lazarus  without  feeling  the  fire  of  a  holy  scorn  ? 
Who  can  read  the  denunciation  of  the  Pharisees 
without  realizing  that  he  is  in  the  presence  of  a 
volcano  belching  molten  lava  ?  No  one  could  speak 
language  like  that  which  the  evangelists  have  re- 
corded who  was  not  capable  of  tremendous  indigna- 
tion. It  is  a  wrath  which  leaps  beyond  the  wrath 
of  man.  It  is  the  very  wrath  of  God  Himself.  One 
of  the  purposes  of  the  New  Testament  is  to  give 
us  a  new  revelation  of  anger.  Take  away  Jesus' 
capacity  for  indignation  and  you  destroy  the  Jesus 


HIS  INDIGNATION-  301 

of  the  Gospels.  His  anger  was  one  of  the  powers 
by  which  he  did  his  work.  His  blazing  wrath  is 
one  of  the  most  glorious  features  of  his  character. 
Had  he  been  less  emotional,  he  would  not  have  stirred 
men  as  he  did.  Had  his  passion  been  less  intense, 
the  world  would  never  have  called  him  ''Master." 

Here,  then,  we  have  in  Jesus  what  seems  to  some  a 
contradiction.  He  is  a  Lamb  and  at  the  same  time 
he  is  the  Lion  of  the  Tribe  of  Judah.  He  caresses 
like  a  mother  and  he  also  strikes  like  a  thunderbolt. 
He  is  tender  but  he  is  also  terrible ;  he  is  loving  but 
he  also  smites  with  a  blow  which  crushes.  How 
can  we  reconcile  the  indignation  of  Jesus  with  his 
love?  Nothing  is  easier.  His  indignation  is  the 
creation  of  his  love.  His  wrath  proceeds  from  his 
holiness.  His  mercy  would  have  no  meaning  were 
it  not  for  his  immeasurable  capacity  for  anger. 
Take  away  his  indignation  and  you  destroy  the  basis 
of  his  holiness,  his  righteousness,  his  mercy,  and  his 
love.  Love  and  indignation  are  not  antagonists/ 
or  rivals.  They  ever  go  together,  each  one  unablef 
to  live  without  the  other.  Only  those  who  have? 
never  loved  have  difficulty  in  understanding  th^ 
heart's  capacity  for  wrath.  Did  you  ever  see  a  lover 
stand  calm-eyed  and  gentle-tempered  in  the  presence 
of  the  villain  who  had  dared  insult  the  queen  of  his 
heart?  When  since  the  world  began  has  love  ever 
maintained  a  quiet  pulse  in  the  presence  of  the 
assailant  of  the  loved  one  ?  A  mother,  all  gentleness 
and  sweetness  as  she  moves  among   her  children, 


302  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

passes  into  an  avenging  fury  in  the  face  of  a  foe  who 
attempts  to  harm  them.  The  dimensions  of  her 
indignation  will  be  determined  by  the  depth  and  heat 
of  her  love.  It  is  the  hottest  love  which  when 
enlisted  in  the  welfare  of  others  scorches  opposing 
forces  to  cinders.  The  power  of  loving  and  the  power 
of  hating  must  always  go  together.  There  is  right 
and  there  is  wrong,  the  first  must  be  approved,  the 
second  must  be  condemned.  The  condemnation 
must  not  be  cold  but  vehement.  It  must  carry  with 
it  all  the  energy  of  the  soul.  It  must  have  at  the 
heart  of  it  that  heavenly  fire  which  is  known  on 
earth  as  indignation. 

In  Jesus,  then,  we  see  what  a  normal  man  is  and 
feels.  He  is  full-orbed,  complete.  He  gives  sweep 
to  every  passion  of  the  soul.  He  will  not  admit  that 
in  the  garden  of  the  heart  there  are  any  plants  which 
the  Heavenly  Father  has  planted  which  ought  to  be 
rooted  up.  All  the  impulses,  desires,  and  passions 
with  which  the  Almighty  has  endowed  us  have  a 
mission  to  perform,  and  life's  task  is  not  to  strangle 
them  but  to  train  them  for  their  work. 

Jesus  was  angry  but  he  did  not  sin.  Anger  because 
of  its  heat  readily  passes  beyond  its  appointed  limits. 
Like  all  kinds  of  fire,  it  is  dangerous  and  difficult 
to  control.  But  Jesus  controlled  it.  "Thus  far," 
he  said,  "and  no  farther.'^  No  sinful  element 
mingled  in  that  indignation  which  burned  with  a 
white  and  resistless  heat.  The  irritation  which  we 
so  often  feel,  the  exasperation  which  lacerates  and 


HIS  INDIGNATION-  303 

rends  the  heart,  the  bitterness  of  which  we  are 
ashamed  —  all  these  were  absent  from  Jesus'  anger. 
His  wrath  was  the  hottest  ever  known  upon  our 
earth,  but  the  heart  in  which  it  burned  was  sinless. 
Our  anger  is  frequently  a  manifestation  of  our 
selfishness.  We  become  indignant  over  trifles. 
The  street-car  does  not  stop,  or  somebody  carelessly 
knocks  off  our  hat,  or  a  servant  disappoints  us,  and 
we  are  all  aflame.  Our  comfort  has  been  molested, 
our  rights  have  been  entrenched  upon,  our  dignity 
has  been  affronted,  and  we  are  downright  mad. 
Ravellings  and  shavings  can  set  us  blazing.  But  in 
the  presence  of  gigantic  outrages  perpetrated  on  the 
helpless  and  the  weak,  some  of  us  are  as  calm  as  a 
summer  morning.  Bad  men  do  not  make  us  angry 
unless  they  interfere  with  our  own  personal  affairs. 
If  they  wrong  others  we  will  make  excuses  for  them, 
and  cover  them  all  over  with  the  down  of  extenuating 
syllables,  saying,  "  Poor  men,  they  are  more  sinned 
against  than  sinning,  they  are  the  products  of  the 
age,  the  victims  of  the  system,"  and  thus  do  we  take 
from  guilt  its  heinousness  by  the  flattering  smile  of 
a  placid  face. 

Our  indignation  then  is  quite  different  from 
that  of  Jesus.  His  anger  never  had  its  roots 
in  selfishness.  When  men  abused  him,  he  was 
unruffled.  When  they  lied  about  him,  his  pulse 
beat  was  not  quickened.  When  they  nailed  his 
hands  to  the  cross,  no  trace  of  anger  darkened  his 
face.    His   calm  lips   kept  on   praying,    "Forgive 


304  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do.'*  It  was  when 
he  saw  his  brother  men  abused  that  his  great  soul 
rose  in  wrath.  The  more  helpless  the  person  who 
was  mistreated,  the  hotter  was  the  fire  of  his  indig- 
nation. Against  rich  people  who  imposed  upon  the 
poor,  and  against  clever  people  who  took  advan- 
tage of  the  ignorant,  and  against  strong  people  who 
mistreated  the  weak,  and  against  crafty  people  who 
laid  traps  for  the  innocent,  his  soul  blazed  with  a 
heat  which  became  an  imperishable  and  awe-inspir- 
ing memory  in  the  apostolic  church.  It  was  when 
he  saw  cruelty  perpetrated  on  the  defenceless  that 
his  indignation  rose  to  the  fury  of  a  tempest.  The 
thought  of  bad  men  leading  innocent  souls  to  sin, 
converted  him  into  a  furnace  of  fire.  What  a 
whirlwind  of  flame  sweeps  through  a  sentence  like 
this,  *' Whoso  shall  cause  one  of  these  little  ones 
which  believe  on  me  to  stumble,  it  is  profitable  for 
him  that  a  great  mill-stone  should  be  hanged  about 
his  neck,  and  that  he  should  be  sunk  in  the  depth 
of  the  sea.''  Tender,  indeed,  must  have  been  the 
heart  from  which  could  come  such  forked  lightnings  ! 
If,  then,  we  have  ever  been  scandalized  by  the 
account  of  Jesus'  indignation,  we  should  examine 
ourselves  and  find  out  why  we  shrink  from  the 
thought  that  a  man  like  him  should  burn  with  anger. 
Whenever  we  find  in  Jesus  a  word  or  deed  which 
seems  to  us  to  be  a  departure  from  what  we  conceive 
to  be  the  standard  of  absolute  rectitude,  it  is  well 
to  pause  and  study  our  standards  of  rectitude  afresh, 


HIS  INDIGNATION  305 

for  it  may  be  that  what  we  conceive  to  be  a  defect 
in  him  may  reveal  to  us  a  Hmitation  in  ourself.  If 
we  find  fault  with  him  because  he  blazed  with  anger, 
it  may  be  that  our  criticism  springs  from  blood  which 
has  become  impoverished.  If  we  fail  to  bum  in 
the  presence  of  cruelty  and  injustice,  it  is  because  the 
higher  faculties  of  the  soul  have  become  atrophied  by 
sin.  If  wood  does  not  bum,  it  is  because  it  is  green  or 
rotten.  If  hearts  do  not  burn  with  holy  fire  against 
wicked  men  and  their  wicked  deeds,  it  is  because  the 
heart  is  too  undeveloped  to  feel  what  manly  hearts 
were  meant  to  feel,  or  because  the  core  of  the  heart 
has  been  eaten  out  by  the  base  practices  of  a  godless 
life. 

It  is  one  of  the  lamentable  signs  of  our  times  — 
our  incapacity  for  anger.  Many  of  us  are  lukewarm 
in  the  presence  of  evils  which  are  colossal.  Some  of 
us  are  indifferent.  Indifference  to  wrong-doing  is 
always  a  sign  of  moral  deterioration.  If  we  do  not 
flame  against  villainy,  it  is  because  there  is  so  much 
of  the  villain  in  ourself.  We  would  despise  graft 
with  a  consuming  detestation  if  our  own  palms  were 
not  so  itching.  The  healthy  soul  resents  and  resists 
every  form  of  wrong.  The  unspoiled  heart  goes  out 
like  a  man  in  wrath  against  the  forces  of  iniquity. 
Nothing  is  more  needed  in  our  day  than  enlarged 
capacity  for  moral  indignation.  Nothing  so  clears 
the  atmosphere  as  the  heat  of  hearts  heated  by  holy 
anger.  There  are  evils  so  gigantic  and  so  deeply 
rooted  that  nothing  less  than  a  thunderstorm  will 


306  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

overwhelm  them.  Bad  men  will  abound  more  and 
more  unless  good  men  hurl  thunderbolts.  Criminals 
become  brazen,  wrong-doers  walk  insolently,  rascals 
take  possession  of  high  places,  until  good  men, 
aflame  with  indignation,  arise  and  sweep  them  from 
the  seats  of  power.  Society  would  be  cleansed  of 
much  of  its  pollution  if  we  had  more  men  and  women 
capable  of  becoming  genuinely  angry.  Let  us  pray 
then  every  day  that  a  new  indignation  may  sweep 
through  the  world.  As  Plutarch  put  it  long  ago, 
"  Anger  is  one  of  the  winds  by  which  the  sails  of  the 
soul  are  filled."  Many  a  belated  bark  would  have 
reached  port  long  ago  if  anger  had  been  allowed  to 
do  its  perfect  work.  It  is  the  devil's  trick  to  keep 
good  men  from  becoming  angry.  Not  only  are  we 
permitted  as  Christians  to  be  angry,  but  it  is  our 
duty  on  occasion  to  allow  this  billow  of  fire  to  roll 
through  the  soul.  Martin  Luther  is  not  the  only 
man  who  has  worked  better  when  he  was  angry, 
and  many  of  us  limp  to  our  task  because  we  have 
lost  one  of  the  elements  of  moral  power.  He  was  a 
wise  Englishman  who  wrote,  "Anger  is  one  of  the 
sinews  of  the  soul;  he  that  wants  it  hath  a  maimed 
mind,  and  with  Jacob  sinew-shrunk  in  the  hollow 
of  his  thigh  must  needs  halt." 

In  the  indignation  of  Jesus  we  get  light  upon  the 
character  of  God.  This  man's  anger  flows  from  a 
fountain  in  the  heart  of  the  Eternal.  The  '  wrath 
of  the  Lamb"  is,  as  we  have  been  often  reminded,  a 
figure  of  speech,  but  like  all  Biblical  figures  of  speech, 


HIS  INDIGNATION-  307 

it  is  a  window  opening  out  on  the  infinite.  The  anger 
of  Jesus  is  a  revelation  of  the  anger  of  God.  It  is 
significant  that  it  is  the  beloved  disciple  and  the 
man  to  whom  tradition  has  ascribed  a  heart  unusually 
loving  and  tender,  who  has  most  to  say  about  the 
"wrath  of  the  Lamb."  As  he  brooded  over  the 
years  of  his  intercourse  with  Jesus,  there  was  one 
trait  which  rose  before  him  again  and  again,  and 
that  was  the  anger  of  Jesus.  When  he  speaks  of  it, 
it  is  always  with  syllables  which  hush  the  heart. 
The  man  who  declares  that  "God  is  love"  is  the 
man  who  exhorts  us  to  fiee  from  the  "wrath  of  the 
Lamb." 

The  New  Testament  is  a  glorious  book.  Its  lines 
are  straight,  its  discrimination  is  fine,  it  rings  true. 
It  is  absolutely  free  from  sentimentalism.  It  has 
no  sickly  fondness  for  bad  people.  It  does  not  deal 
in  excuses  and  in  extenuations.  It  has  no  abnormal 
tenderness.  The  world  is  full  of  sentimentalists,  — 
men  and  women  who  gush  of  love,  and  who  do  not 
know  what  love  is.  After  listening  to  their  flimsy 
talk  it  is  refreshing  to  get  into  a  book  where  every 
bad  deed  is  held  up  to  scorn  and  every  bad  man, 
if  unrepentant,  is  overwhelmed  with  shame.  No- 
where in  the  Gospels  is  there  a  soft  or  flabby  thought, 
a  doughy  or  mushy  feeling.  All  is  high  and  straight 
and  fine  and  firm  and  true.  Under  such  a  sky,  life 
becomes  august,  solemn,  beautiful.  It  is  worth 
while  to  strive,  to  work,  to  suffer.  One  feels  sure 
that  God  is  in  His  heaven,  and  that  though  wicked- 


308  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

ness  may  flourish  for  a  season,  God's  heart  burns 
with  quenchless  fire  against  it,  and  that  at  the  end  of 
the  days  every  impure  man,  and  every  cruel  man,  and 
every  man  who  loves  and  makes  a  lie,  will  find  him- 
self outside  the  city  whose  streets  are  gold  and  whose 
gates  are  pearl. 


XXIV 
THE  REVERENCE   OF   JESUS 


XXIV 

THE   REVERENCE    OF   JESUS 

"Hallowed  be  thy  name." 

—  Matthew  vi  :  9. 

No  analysis  of  the  character  of  Jesus  would  be 
complete  which  failed  to  recognize  his  reverence. 
It  is  one  of  the  traits  which  contribute  most  largely 
to  his  loveliness,  a  characteristic  which  attracts  the 
notice  of  every  observing  mind.  To  write  a  defini- 
tion of  reverence  is  not  easy.  There  are  some  things 
which  the  heart  can  sense  but  which  the  intellect 
cannot  easily  define.  We  know  what  reverence  is, 
and  yet  we  stumble  in  trying  to  define  it.  It  is 
respect,  regard,  esteem,  and  honor;  yes,  and  it  is 
more  than  these.  Those  thin  and  pallid  syllables 
do  not  express  all  which  the  heart  feels  when  the 
word  "  reverence"  is  spoken.  The  basis  of  reverence 
is  respect  or  honor,  but  it  is  respect  or  honor  work- 
ing with  unwonted  energy.  It  is  a  deep  movement 
of  the  soul.  It  is  respect  or  honor  squared  and 
cubed.  And  then  again  there  is  an  elevation  in  the 
word  "reverence"  which  respect  and  esteem  do  not 
have. 

Reverence  is  respect  and  esteem  moving  at 
high  altitudes.    It  is  one  of  the  loftiest  of  all  the 

3" 


312  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

emotions  of  the  soul,  and  that  is  why  it  eludes  us 
when  we  try  to  capture  it  in  the  meshes  of  a  defini- 
tion. What  is  it  ?  It  is  homage  and  obeisance  and 
devotion,  yes,  and  something  more.  It  is  awe  and 
fear  and  adoration;  yes,  but  even  these  do  not  tell 
the  full-rounded  story.  The  fact  is,  reverence  is  a 
complex  emotion,  made  up  of  mingled  feelings  of 
the  soul.  There  is  in  it  respect  and  also  affection 
and  also  fear,  and  along  with  these  an  abiding  con- 
sciousness of  dependence.  There  is  probably  no 
expression  which  defines  what  we  mean  by  reverence 
so  well  as  the  Old  Testament  phrase,  ''The  fear  of 
the  Lord."  The  wise  men  of  Israel  were  convinced 
that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom. 
Their  effort  was  to  make  men  conscious  of  the 
existence  of  a  God  of  infinite  power  and  wisdom  and 
goodness.  He  was  the  High  and  Holy  One  who 
inhabits  eternity,  and  is  therefore  not  to  be  ap- 
proached carelessly  or  thought  of  lightly.  The 
Temple  in  Jerusalem  was  built  in  such  a  way  as  to 
establish  the  fear  of  the  Lord  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  Its  architecture  was  continually  reminding 
them  that  to  be  reverent  is  to  be  wise.  Into  the 
outer  courts  of  the  Temple  every  Hebrew  might  go ; 
into  the  inner  court  or  holy  place  only  one  particular 
class  of  men  could  enter;  while  into  the  innermost 
sanctuary  or  holy  of  holies  only  one  man  was  per- 
mitted to  make  his  way,  and  that  man  only  on  one 
great  day  of  the  year.  In  this  way  the  cardinal  truth 
was  promulgated  that  God  is  majestic  and  holy  and 


mS  REVEREATCE  313 

can  be  approached  only  by  a  humble  and  prostrate 
heart.  This  fear  of  the  Lord  was  mighty  in  Jesus. 
God  was  continually  before  his  eyes.  His  soul  was 
pervaded  with  the  sense  of  His  presence,  and  all 
that  he  said  and  did  was  bathed  in  an  atmosphere 
created  by  this  consciousness  of  the  fellowship  and 
favor  of  the  Eternal. 

To  illustrate  this  is  not  easy.  Jesus'  entire  life 
is  an  illustration  of  it.  One  cannot  pick  out  isolated 
words  or  acts  and  hold  them  up,  saying,  "  Behold, 
how  reverent  he  was !"  A  man  cannot  be  reverent 
at  intervals.  He  must  be  reverent  all  the  time  or  not 
at  all.  If  he  is  reverent  on  Monday  and  not  on 
Tuesday,  then  his  Monday  reverence  was  a  pretence 
and  a  sham.  Reverence  is  not  a  vesture  which  can 
be  put  on  and  laid  off,  it  runs  in  the  very  blood  of  the 
soul.  It  is  impossible  to  localize  it.  It  is  rather  an 
atmosphere  in  which  the  personality  is  enveloped. 
It  is  a  settled  habit  of  the  spirit,  a  fixed  attitude  of 
the  heart,  an  unchanging  trend  of  all  the  currents  of 
the  being  toward  God.  No  matter  what  Jesus  is 
saying  or  doing,  we  feel  we  are  in  the  presence  of  a 
reverential  man.  Would  you  see  illustrations  of  his 
reverence,  read  the  Gospels! 

The  earnestness  with  which  he  was  always  plead- 
ing for  reverence  in  others  is  proof  that  in  him 
reverence  was  a  divine  and  indispensable  possession. 
He  could  not  have  so  loved  it  in  others  had  he  not 
possessed  it  himself.  **When  you  pray,  say.  Our 
Father,  hallowed  be  thy  name."     Probably  no  other 


314  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

words  in  the  Lord's  prayer  have  been  so  frequently 
slurred  and  overlooked  as  "hallowed  be  thy  name.'* 
They  lie,  as  it  were,  in  the  valley  between  the  great 
name  of  God  and  the  glorious  Kingdom  for  which 
we  are  looking  and  waiting.  We  slide  over  them  as 
though  they  were  only  a  parenthesis,  and  hasten 
on  to  ask  for  bread  and  deliverance  from  our  great- 
est foe.  But  Jesus  is  careful  to  place  this  petition  at 
the  very  forefront  of  all  our  praying.  Unless  this 
desire  is  uppermost  in  our  heart  we  are  not  in  the 
mood  of  prayer.  If  our  first  thought  is  of  ourselves 
and  not  of  God,  then  we  are  not  praying  after  the 
fashion  of  Jesus.  When  he  tells  us  to  put  this  peti- 
tion first  it  is  because  he  always  put  it  first  himself. 
It  was  his  supreme  ambition  that  his  Father's 
name  should  be  kept  beautiful  and  holy.  "When 
you  pray,  then,"  he  said  to  his  disciples,  "pray  that 
God's  name  may  be  consecrated,  reverenced,  kept 
holy ;  hedge  it  from  the  contaminating  influences  of 
an  evil  world,  separate  it  from  all  other  names  which 
the  lips  speak  or  the  mind  thinks."  Any  low  or 
unworthy  thought  of  God  was  to  Jesus'  mind  ab- 
horrent and  degrading.  Living  always  with  an  eye 
single  to  the  glory  of  God,  he  urged  men  everywhere 
so  to  speak  and  act  and  live  that  others  seeing  their 
good  works  might  glorify  their  Father  in  heaven. 

Holding  God  continually  before  his  eyes  he  saw 
everything  in  relation  to  the  Eternal.  His  respect  for 
men  was  due  not  to  what  men  were  in  themselves 
but  to  what  they  were  in  the  eyes  of  God.     They 


HIS  REVERENCE  315 

were  God's  children  and  therefore  no  matter  how 
poor  or  degraded,  they  were  worthy  of  respect  and 
honor.  Any  cruelty  in  word  or  inhumanity  in  action 
toward  a  human  being  caused  the  heart  of  Jesus  to 
flash  fire,  because  such  treatment  of  God's  children 
was  in  his  mind  an  insult  to  God  Himself.  His 
reverence  for  his  Father  made  the  whole  world 
holy,  and  because  of  his  adoration  for  the  Creator 
he  could  not  turn  his  back  upon  any  created  being. 
"Honor  all  men"  was  one  of  the  earliest  exhortations 
of  the  apostles.  It  had  its  roots  running  down  into 
Jesus'  immeasurable  reverence  for  God. 

How  careful  he  was  for  the  fair  name  of  his 
Father  is  illustrated  in  what  he  says  in  regard  to 
oaths.  The  religious  leaders  of  his  day  had  a  cer- 
tain form  of  reverence,  but  it  was  circumscribed 
and  shallow.  They  reverenced  the  letters  which 
spelled  God's  name  so  highly  that  they  would  never 
take  them  upon  their  lips.  But  they  had  no  hesi- 
tation in  filling  the  empty  spaces  with  other  words. 
If  they  would  not  swear  in  the  name  of  God,  they 
would  fill  their  oaths  with  the  names  of  things  which 
God  had  made.  Jesus'  reverence  for  his  Father 
was  so  intense  that  it  extended  also  to  the  things 
created  by  his  Father.  The  Jews  were  in  the  habit 
of  swearing  by  heaven,  but  this  to  Jesus  was  profane 
because  heaven  was  made  by  God.  They  sometimes 
swore  by  the  earth,  but  this  was  to  him  also  shock- 
ing because  the  earth  belongs  to  God.  Sometimes 
they  swore  by  Jerusalem,  but  this  also  could  not  be 


3l6  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

permitted  for  it  was  a  city  dear  to  God.  If  they 
swore  by  their  own  heads,  they  were  also  in  the 
wrong,  for  their  head  was  created  by  the  Almighty. 
Here  is  indeed  a  sensitive  heart.  He  feels  so  keenly 
the  majesty  and  dignity  of  the  Eternal  Father  that 
all  created  things  shine  in  the  reflected  glory  of  His 
face,  and  therefore  nothing  is  to  be  treated  irrever- 
ently, dragged  down  into  vulgarity,  or  converted  into 
a  joke. 

His  reverence  for  the  Temple  was  unfailing. 
Every  stone  in  it  spoke  to  him  of  God,  and  every 
ceremony  celebrated  within  its  courts  had  in  it  a 
meaning  which  soothed  and  comforted  his  heart. 
Any  desecration  of  a  building  erected  to  promote 
God's  glory  was  to  him  horrible  and  unendurable. 
It  was  in  this  building  that  eyes  were  to  be  opened 
and  hearts  cleansed  to  behold  the  King  in  His  beauty. 
Around  it  clustered  sacred  associations  and  sweet 
memories  of  many  years.  It  was  to  Jesus  indeed  a 
holy  place.  But  not  so  to  many  of  his'  countrymen. 
In  the  process  of  moral  degradation  reverence  is 
one  of  the  first  of  the  virtues  to  disappear.  It  is  a 
flower  of  paradise  which  cannot  blossom  in  the  chill 
atmosphere  of  sordidness  and  vulgarity.  The  love 
of  money  had  eaten  out  the  hearts  of  many  of  Jesus* 
countrymen.  They  cared  more  for  gain  than  they 
did  for  God.  Caring  nothing  for  God,  why  should 
they  care  for  God's  temple?  They  converted  the 
temple  courts  into  a  market-place  and  drowned  the 
anthems  and  the  prayers  with  the  clink  of  money  and 


HIS  REVERENCE  317 

the  bellowing  of  steers.  Jesus  could  not  endure  it. 
Other  men  had  endured  it  —  he  could  not.  Irrev- 
erence is  a  sword  through  the  heart  of  a  reverent 
man.  Never  did  Jesus  show  such  a  tempest  of 
emotion  as  in  the  cleansing  of  the  Temple.  To  the 
onlookers  he  seemed  to  be  beside  himself.  He 
became  all  at  once  an  avenging  fury,  and  before  the 
miscreants  knew  what  was  happening  their  coins 
were  rolling  over  the  temple  floor  and  their  flocks 
and  herds  were  in  the  street.  The  explanation  of  the 
tempest  lies  in  these  three  words,  —  "  My  Father's 
house."  It  was  not  an  ordinary  house.  It  was  the 
house  of  God.  It  was  erected  for  God's  worship. 
It  was  a  shrine  for  the  adoring  heart.  It  was  in- 
tended to  be  a  solace  for  men's  woes  and  troubles,  the 
very  gate  of  Heaven.  "Take  these  things  hence; 
make  not  my  Father's  house  a  house  of  merchandise." 
It  was  his  reverence  which  kindled  a  fire  in  his  eyes 
and  gave  his  words  an  energy  which  pierced  like 
daggers. 

Jesus  believed  in  the  worship  of  God.  He  was 
careful  always  to  maintain  the  forms  which  nourish 
and  guard  the  high  sentiments  of  the  heart.  His 
attitude  to  forms  has  often  been  misunderstood  by 
persons  who,  glancing  at  the  surface,  have  not  caught 
the  significance  of  what  he  did.  He  made  unre- 
lenting war  upon  the  Pharisees  who  were  the  anointed 
custodians  of  form.  He  criticised  their  ways  of  fast- 
ing and  giving  and  praying  and  dressing  and  held 
up  their  entire  life  to  condemnation.     And  because 


3l8  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

of  this  it  has  been  sometimes  said  that  Jesus  did  not 
believe  in  forms.  This  is  an  error.  Jesus  did  not 
believe  in  formalism.  Formalism  is  the  corpse  of 
form  —  form  after  the  spirit  of  life  has  gone  out  of 
it.  Jesus  hated  death  wherever  he  found  it.  He 
hated  it  most  of  all  in  the  form  of  worship.  Wor- 
ship is  the  body  in  which  reverence  enshrines  itself. 
So  long  as  the  spirit  of  reverence  lives  the  worship  is 
meaningful  and  beautiful;  but  when  the  spirit  dis- 
appears, then  the  worship  becomes  demoralizing  and 
corrupting.  The  worship  of  the  Pharisees  had  lost 
out  of  it  the  spirit  of  adoration.  It  was  cut  and 
dried,  dead,  mechanical,  without  a  heart  and  without 
a  soul,  and  therefore  odious  to  God  and  all  right- 
thinking  men.  Reverence  is  beautiful  and  renders 
beautiful  whatever  form  it  chooses  in  which  to  express 
itself;  but  when  reverence  dies,  then  the  forms  of 
reverence  become  corpse-like  and  contaminate  all 
who  handle  them.  Jesus  believed  in  forms.  They 
are,  when  rightly  used,  the  conservators  of  life.  If 
you  want  to  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  courtesy  and 
politeness,  then  do  not  cast  away  the  forms  of  polite- 
ness and  courtesy.  If  you  wish  to  keep  the  fires  of 
love  burning,  do  not  banish  the  forms  in  which  love 
delights  to  express  itself.  If  you  desire  to  maintain 
the  spirit  of  friendship,  be  sure  you  treasure  all  its 
forms.  He  was  a  wise  man  who  advised  us  to  keep 
our  friendships  in  repair,  and  they  who  do  not  do 
this  find  at  last  that  their  friendships  have  decayed 
and  passed  away.     Would  you  keep  alive  the  spirit 


HTS  REVERENCE  319 

of  reverence,  then  make  use  of  the  forms  which  are 
best  adapted  to  feed  and  develop  that  spirit  in  the 
soul. 

Jesus  made  fierce  war  on  formalism,  but  he 
ever  was  a  scrupulous  observer  of  form.  He  was 
always  in  the  S)^nagogue  on  the  Sabbath  day.  He 
followed  faithfully  the  order  of  the  service.  He  re- 
peated the  prayers,  he  sang  the  psalms,  he  listened 
to  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures.  When  he  fed  the 
five  thousand  men  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan  he 
was  careful  to  return  thanks  to  God  before  the  meal 
proceeded.  When  he  stood  at  the  grave  of  Lazarus, 
he  first  looked  to  God  in  prayer  before  he  spoke 
the  words,  ^'Come  forth!"  In  the  upper  chamber 
he  observed  the  forms  of  the  Passover,  omitting 
nothing  from  the  ritual,  sacred  because  transmitted 
through  so  many  generations.  The  soul  of  Jesus 
was  reverent.  He  found  it  easy  to  bend  the  knee. 
It  was  natural  for  him  to  look  up.  He  looked  into 
his  Father's  face,  saying  at  every  step,  *'Lo,  I  come 
to  do  Thy  will,  O  God!" 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  virtue  upon  whose  beauty 
we  should  often  fix  our  eyes.  We  do  not  have  as 
much  reverence  as  we  ought  to  have.  We  are  not 
by  nature  or  by  training  a  reverent  people.  There 
are  those  who  say  we  become  less  reverent  as  the 
years  go  on.  The  older  people  are  constantly  la- 
menting that  they  miss  a  certain  beautiful  respectful- 
ness, a  lovely  reverence  which  were  more  common 
many  years  ago.     There  are  wide  areas  of  American 


320  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

society  from  which  the  spirit  of  reverence  has  been 
banished.  Men  and  women  in  many  a  circle  are 
clever,  interesting,  brilliant,  but  they  lack  one  of  the 
three  dimensions  of  life  —  they  have  no  reach 
upward.  Their  conversation  sparkles,  but  it  is 
frivolous  and  often  flippant.  Their  talk  is  witty, 
but  the  wit  is  often  at  the  expense  of  high  and  sacred 
things.  He  has  come  far  down  in  the  scale  of  being 
who  in  order  to  display  his  powers  finds  it  necessary 
to  ridicule  those  things  which  have  been  prized  by 
all  good  men.  When  one  enters  the  world  of  our 
present-day  reformers  he  is  impressed  by  the  large 
number  who  lack  the  upward  look.  Many  of  these 
men  are  tremendously  in  earnest,  they  see  the  crying 
evils  of  the  world;  their  sympathies  are  wide  and 
their  zeal  is  hot,  but  they  have  no  sky  above  their 
heads.  They  aim  to  glorify  no  Father  who  is  in 
heaven.  Some  of  them  claim  to  admire  the  Man 
of  Nazareth.  They  extol  his  character  and  his 
teachings.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  they  do  not  imitate 
his  reverence,  or  cast  a  single  glance  in  the  direction 
in  which  his  eyes  were  always  looking.  One  finds 
this  lack  of  reverence  even  in  the  church.  In  every 
community  there  are  those  who  treat  the  house  of 
God  as  they  treat  a  street-car,  entering  it  and  leaving 
it  when  they  please.  Even  habitual  church  attend- 
ants often  surprise  and  shock  one  by  their  irreverent 
behavior  in  the  house  of  prayer.  Those  persons 
are  not  ignoramuses  or  barbarians;  they  are  simply 
undeveloped  in  the  virtue  of  reverence. 


HIS  REVERENCE  321 

Why  is  it  that  reverence  is  apparently  in  a  state 
of  decadence?  Is  it  due  to  our  improper  reading? 
The  press  is  constantly  exploiting  the  sordid  side  of 
human  nature,  calling  our  attention  to  moral  col- 
lapse and  degradation,  and  it  may  be  that  our  fa- 
miliarity with  vice  in  its  varied  forms  is  taking  off 
the  edge  of  our  sensibility  so  that  we  no  longer  re- 
spond readily  to  the  things  which  are  noble  and  high. 
What  has  the  stage  to  do  —  do  you  think  —  with  our 
loss  of  reverence  ?  It  is  lamentable  that  so  large  a 
proportion  of  plays  move  in  that  border-land  which 
lies  between  decency  and  indecency.  The  openly 
immoral  play  cannot  as  yet  be  endured,  but  the 
play  that  is  most  popular  is  often  a  play  which  skirts 
the  edges  of  the  realms  of  the  indecent.  Theatre 
audiences  seem  to  like  a  sentence  now  and  then 
which  looks  in  the  direction  of  the  unclean,  and  to 
relish  an  occasional  insinuation  or  remark  which 
leads  down  to  the  mud.  Our  imagination  may  be 
so  coarsened  by  the  realms  through  which  it  travels 
as  to  lose  the  capacity  for  feeling  the  rapture  of  the 
sense  of  awe. 

Possibly  we  are  becoming  less  reverent  because 
we  are  ashamed  of  being  afraid  of  anybody  or  any- 
thing. Fear  is  one  of  the  elements  in  reverence,  and 
there  is  a  popular  impression  that  all  fear  is  de- 
grading. Fear  is  of  two  kinds,  —  there  is  a  godly 
fear  and  a  fear  which  is  ungodly.  The  latter  has 
terror  in  it  and  throws  a  shadow  and  brings  a  chill. 

But  there  is  a  fear  which  all  unspoiled  spirits  feel 


322  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

in  the  presence  of  the  high  and  holy.  If  mortal 
man,  stained  and  marred  by  sin,  is  not  awed  by  the 
thought  of  a  Holy  God,  it  is  because  he  has  lost  the 
power  of  feeling.  If  there  is  a  fear  which  degrades 
and  paralyzes,  there  is  also  a  fear  which  cleanses 
and  exalts.  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  not  only  a  virtue 
to  be  coveted  by  men,  it  is  a  grace  lacking  which 
angels  and  archangels  would  be  incomplete.  Rev- 
erence is  the  atmosphere  of  heaven.  Let  us  come 
often  then  to  the  reverent  Man  of  Nazareth  who 
by  his  awe-struck  obeisance  to  his  Heavenly  Father 
shames  us  out  of  our  irreverence  and  makes  it  easier 
for  the  heart  to  kneel. 


XXV 

THE  HOLINESS   OF   JESUS 


XXV 

THE   HOLINESS    OF   JESUS 

"Which  of  you  convicteth  me  of  sin?" 

—  John  viii  :  46. 

Here  for  the  first  time  in  this  course  of  sermons 
I  use  a  word  which  belongs  to  another  vocabulary. 
Courage,  humility,  patience,  poise,  brotherliness, 
indignation  —  these  all  belong  to  a  common  class, 
but  you  pass  the  boundaries  into  another  region 
when  you  use  the  word  "holiness."  All  the  other 
words  which  I  have  used  can  be  applied  to  many  of 
the  great  men  of  the  earth;  the  word  "holiness"  can 
be  applied  to  one  only.  Write  the  word  "holiness" 
before  the  names  of  the  great  poets.  Speak  these 
words:  "The  holiness  of  Homer,"  "of  Dante," 
"of  Shakespeare,"  "of  Tennyson."  The  heart 
revolts  against  it.  Write  the  word  "holiness"  before 
the  names  of  the  great  philosophers:  "The  holiness 
of  Socrates,"  "of  Plato,"  "of  Kant,"  "of  Herbert 
Spencer."  There  is  something  which  offends  the 
soul.  Write  the  word  "holiness"  before  the  names 
of  the  great  scientists:  "The  holiness  of  Newton," 
"of  Kepler,"  "of  Pasteur,"  "of  Huxley,"  and  the 
word  does  not  fit  those  illustrious  names.     Speak 

325 


326  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

of  the  holiness  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  of  General 
Gordon,  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  of  Stonewall  Jackson, 
and  here  again  there  is  something  in  us  which  takes 
offence.  Try  the  word  now  before  the  very  greatest 
statesmen  of  the  world:  "The  holiness  of  Pitt," 
"of  Cavour,"  "of  Gladstone,"  "of  Webster,"  and 
here  again  we  have  not  used  the  proper  word.  But 
when  you  say  the  "holiness  of  Jesus,"  that  seems 
altogether  proper.  There  is  but  one  name  in  human 
history  with  which  we  can  link  that  glorious  noun. 

What  do  we  mean  by  holiness  ?  We  mean  whole- 
ness, full-orbed  perfection.  A  holy  man  is  a  man 
without  a  fleck  or  flaw,  a  character  without  a  blemish 
or  a  stain.  Let  us  think  about  the  sinlessness  of 
Jesus.  When  we  speak  of  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus 
a  thoughtful  man  might  ask  the  question:  "How 
do  you  know  that  he  was  sinless?  You  have  only 
an  account  of  his  words  and  deeds,  and  while  these 
may  be  above  all  criticism,  how  do  you  know  what 
took  place  in  the  chambers  of  the  heart?  How 
do  you  know  that  every  feeling  was  free  from  sin, 
that  not  a  single  thought  was  stained,  that  every 
motive,  even  the  deepest,  was  according  to  the  will 
of  God?  Do  you  not  pass  into  the  region  of  con- 
jecture when  you  say  that  here  was  an  absolutely 
sinless  man?"  And  the  further  fact  might  also  be 
urged  that  w^e  have  the  story  of  only  a  fraction  of  his 
life.  He  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-three,  and  of  this 
period  thirty  years  are  well-nigh  a  total  blank.  Even 
if  you  grant  that  his  public  life  was  perfect,  how  can 


HIS  HOLINESS  327 

you  speak  with  authority  concerning  the  life  which 
he  lived  before  he  appeared  at  Jordan  to  be  baptized 
by  John  ?  How  do  you  know  what  his  life  was  as  a 
boy,  as  a  youth,  as  a  young  man  ?  Of  all  this  period 
scarcely  a  syllable  is  told  us,  and  yet  how  many  sins 
may  have  been  committed  in  those  seething,  tem- 
pestuous years?  And  one  might  go  on  to  say: 
**  How  can  you  be  sure  that  all  that  he  did  and  said 
recorded  in  the  New  Testament  was  absolutely 
right  in  the  sight  of  God  ?  When  he  denounced  the 
Pharisees  and  hurled  his  cutting  epithets  at  them, 
can  you  be  sure  there  was  no  excess  of  passion? 
When  he  drove  the  traders  from  the  Temple,  can  you 
be  certain  that  he  did  not  overstep  the  boundaries 
of  righteous  indignation?  When  he  cursed  the  fig 
tree,  was  there  no  impatience  in  his  words?  When 
he  drove  the  Syro-Phoenician  woman  away  with  the 
remark  that  it  was  not  fitting  to  take  the  children's 
bread  and  cast  it  unto  dogs,  was  he  not  guilty  of  the 
very  sin  which  disfigured  and  disgraced  so  many  of 
his  countrymen?  And  then  again  how  can  you  be 
sure  that  he  fulfilled  every  duty?  Even  granting 
that  we  cannot  charge  him  with  any  sins  of  com- 
mission, how  do  you  know  there  were  no  sins  of 
omission?  Duty  is  infinite.  There  are  duties  tow- 
ard God  and  toward  one's  fellow-men  and  toward 
one's  own  soul,  and  who  in  this  world  is  competent 
to  say  that  Jesus  fulfilled  every  duty  to  himself  and 
to  men  and  to  God  up  to  the  level  of  perfection?" 
These  are  natural  questions,  and  questions  which 


328  CHARACTER    OF  JESUS 

deserve  an  answer.  They  will  occur  to  thoughtful 
minds  whenever  they  approach  the  question  of 
Jesus'  holiness. 

In  answer  to  these  questions  it  may  be  said  in 
the  first  place  that  so  far  as  we  can  discover  there 
is  nothing  in  Jesus'  consciousness  which  indicates 
that  he  was  guilty  of  any  sin.  There  is  no  trace 
anywhere  of  regret,  no  indication  anywhere  of  re- 
morse. From  first  to  last  he  is  serene,  jubilant, 
confident,  free,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  from  that  shadow 
which  the  consciousness  of  sin  always  casts.  Now 
everybody  agrees  that  Jesus  was  a  good  man,  ex- 
ceedingly good,  extraordinarily  good.  Everybody 
admits  that  he  was  the  best  man  that  ever  lived. 
But  if  we  once  admit  this,  we  are  bound  to  go  a 
great  deal  farther,  for  just  in  proportion  as  a  man 
is  really  good  does  he  become  sensitive  to  sin ;  just 
in  proportion  as  his  spiritual  sense  is  keen  does  his 
consciousness  of  sin  become  disturbing  and  appalling. 
If  you  want  the  saddest  confessions  of  shortcomings, 
do  not  go  to  the  worst  men,  but  to  the  best.  The 
higher  a  man  rises  in  spiritual  attainment,  the  more 
is  he  cast  down  by  the  knowledge  of  his  sins.  Run 
through  the  Scriptures,  and  you  will  find  that  all 
the  saints  have  their  faces  in  the  dust.  Isaiah  has 
a  vision  of  God  and  his  first  cry  is,  "Woe  is  me,  for 
I  am  undone!"  Job  has  a  vision  of  God,  and  he 
casts  himself  upon  the  ground,  saying,  *'I  abhor 
myself  and  repent  in  sackcloth  and  ashes."  John 
the  beloved  disciple  says,  *'If  we  say  we  have  no 


HIS  HOLINESS 


329 


sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us/' 
Paul  the  greatest  of  all  the  apostles  cries  out  in  an 
agony  of  remorse,  "I  am  the  chief  of  sinners." 
Peter  says,  "Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful 
man,  O  Lord."  There  is  no  exception  in  the  whole 
list  from  Abraham  down  to  the  latest  of  the  apostles. 
Every  heart  cries  out  in  the  language  of  the  Psalmist : 
"Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  and  blot  out  my 
transgressions,"  "Wash  me  from  mine  iniquity, 
and  cleanse  me  from  my  sin,  for  my  sin  is  ever  before 
me." 

If,  therefore,  Jesus  is  indeed  the  best  man  that 
ever  lived  and  still  a  sinner,  he  must  have  been 
conscious  of  his  sin ;  and  if  he  had  been  an  honest 
man,  conscious  of  his  sin,  he  would  not  have  con- 
cealed the  fact  from  those  that  were  nearest  to  him. 
He  would  have  given  signs  of  repentance  and  shown 
traces  of  regret.  There  would  have  been  many  an 
evidence  of  contrition  and  compunction.  But  so 
far  as  any  of  the  apostles  knew  there  never  escaped 
his  lips  a  cry  for  pardon.  On  the  other  hand  he 
was  always  giving  utterance  to  words  like  these: 
"He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father,"  "I 
do  always  those  things  which  are  pleasing  unto 
him,"  "Which  one  of  you  convicteth  me  of  sin?" 
And  even  when  in  sight  of  the  cross,  with  death 
only  a  few  hours  away,  he  looks  into  God's  face 
saying,  "I  have  finished  the  work  which  thou 
gavest  me  to  do."  Other  men  looked  into  the  un- 
stained splendor,  the  white  radiance  of  the  world 


330  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

eternal,  and  fell  back  abashed  and  condemned; 
Jesus  looks  into  that  same  unspotted  glory  and  says, 
"I  have  finished  the  work  which  thou  gavest  me  to 
do."  This  is  remarkable,  altogether  unique.  Here 
is  a  man  who  told  others  to  say  when  they  prayed, 
"Forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors,'* 
but  he  never  prayed  that  prayer  himself.  Other 
men,  even  the  strongest,  have  asked  others  to  pray 
for  them  —  he  never  asked  prayers  of  any  man.  If 
then  we  are  willing  to  listen  to  the  consciousness  of 
Jesus,  we  are  bound  to  confess  that  here  was  a  man 
without  sin.  If  he  was  not  without  sin,  then  he 
was  not  a  good  man  at  all,  for  he  carefully  con- 
cealed from  his  companions  the  stained  parts  of  his 
life,  and  led  them  to  think  that  he  was  better  than 
he  was,  in  which  case  he  was  a  hypocrite  and  our 
hero  has  vanished. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Not  only  did  he  hold  himself 
immeasurably  above  the  heads  of  all  other  men, 
but  he  forgave  sins,  he  spoke  as  one  having  au- 
thority. No  other  man  had  ever  exercised  such  a 
prerogative.  Even  the  worst  sinners  when  penitent 
at  his  feet  received  from  him  authoritative  assurance 
of  forgiveness.  Moreover  he  was  a  man  without  a 
human  ideal.  All  good  men  have  looked  up  to 
some  man  better  than  themselves ;  Jesus  looked  up 
to  no  man.  He  placed  himself  above  Moses.  He 
said,  "A  greater  than  Solomon  is  here."  He  said 
to  men,  "Follow  me,  I  am  the  ideal."  And  at  the 
same  time  he  said,  "Be  ye   perfect  even  as  your 


HIS  HOLINESS  331 

Father  in  heaven  is  perfect."  How  will  you  put 
these  two  exhortations  together  ?  "  Follow  me ! 
Be  ye  perfect !"  He  was  inexorable  at  this  point,  — 
he  would  not  allow  any  one  to  get  between  him  and 
the  soul.  It  was  worth  while  for  a  man  to  die  for 
his  sake  —  the  very  dearest  friend  a  man  had  was 
to  be  given  second  place.  He  claimed  to  be  first. 
If  he  were  indeed  perfect,  all  this  was  right ;  but  if 
he  were  a  sinner  concealing  his  sin  or  unconscious 
of  his  sin,  then  all  such  exhortations  as,  "Follow 
me,"  are  demoralizing,  and  his  pretensions  are 
blasphemous.  If  he  was  good  at  all,  he  was  sinless. 
Attention  ought  to  be  called  to  the  impression 
which  he  made  upon  others.  The  men  who  were 
nearest  to  him  got  the  idea  that  he  was  without  sin. 
When  he  came  to  John  the  Baptist  asking  to  be 
baptized,  John  drew  back  from  him,  saying:  "I 
cannot  baptize  you.  You  ought  to  baptize  me." 
And  why?  Because  John  was  baptizing  men  for 
their  sins.  He  could  not  baptize  Jesus,  because 
Jesus  had  no  sins.  And  when  Jesus  makes  his 
reply,  he  does  not  say,  "I  am  a  sinner,  therefore  I 
must  be  baptized,"  he  says,  *'  Suffer  it  now,  for  it  is 
becoming  that  we  should  fulfil  all  righteousness." 
There  was  a  reason  why  the  baptism  should  be  per- 
formed,— there  was  another  element  in  baptism 
besides  confession  of  sin.  John  was  the  beloved 
disciple,  coming  the  nearest  to  the  Master's  heart. 
In  the  third  chapter  of  his  first  letter  he  says  this, 
"He  was  manifested  to  take  away  our  sin,  and  in 


332  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

him  is  no  sin."  That  was  the  impression  which  the 
Lord  made  upon  him.  Peter  was  one  of  his  most 
loyal  friends.  He  was  with  him  day  and  night 
through  three  years.  In  the  second  chapter  of  his 
first  letter  he  says,  "He  did  no  sin,  neither  was 
guile  found  in  his  mouth."  Now  these  men  were 
with  Jesus.  They  ate  with  him,  drank  with  him, 
slept  with  him,  they  saw  him  in  all  conditions  and  in 
all  moods,  and  under  varying  circumstances.  They 
saw  him  hungry,  angry,  stern,  surprised,  disap- 
pointed, amazed,  yet  they  believed  that  in  him 
there  was  no  sin.  The  writer  to  the  Hebrews  in 
the  fourth  chapter  reminds  his  readers  that  while 
Jesus  was  tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are,  yet  he 
was  without  sin.  That  was  the  impression  then 
which  was  made  upon  the  church.  After  the  resur- 
rection —  they  worshipped  him  as  God.  It  is  incon- 
ceivable that  in  so  short  a  time  a  great  body  of 
intelligent  men  and  women  should  have  been  wor- 
shipping him  as  God  and  singing  hymns  of  praise  to 
him  if  he  had  not  made  upon  them  the  impression 
that  he  was  holy. 

Here,  then,  we  have  reached  the  crowning  charac- 
teristic of  Jesus.  It  is  this  which  differentiates  him 
from  all  other  men  who  have  ever  lived.  Every 
other  man  has  known  the  pang  of  remorse,  every 
other  man  has  cried  for  pardon.  Simon  Peter  was 
hounded  by  memories ;  he  was  a  good  man,  a  great 
man,  a  tireless  worker  in  the  church,  but  condemn- 
ing memories  pursued  him  down  through  the  years, 


HIS  HOLINESS  333 

and  when  at  last  the  time  came  to  die  he  said, 
*' Crucify  me  with  my  head  downward."  He  said 
this  because  he  remembered  his  sin.  Paul  was  a 
good  man  and  a  great  man,  but  he  was  hounded 
by  condemning  memories.  He  filled  the  days  and 
nights  with  work  for  God,  but  he  could  never  for- 
get that  he  had  been  a  persecutor  of  the  church, 
and  so  he  entered  heaven  feeling  that  he  was  the 
chief  of  sinners.  Never  has  there  been  but  one 
white  soul,  never  but  one  life  unspotted,  never  but 
one  mind  without  a  stain,  never  but  one  heart  per- 
fect. It  is  this  sinlessness  which  gives  Jesus  his 
power.  You  cannot  understand  the  New  Testa- 
ment unless  you  acknowledge  that  he  was  holy. 
His  life  was  one  of  suffering,  persecution,  ending  in 
a  horrible  death,  but  yet  the  New  Testament  is  a 
joyous  book.  There  is  no  gloom  in  it  because  there 
was  no  gloom  in  him.  His  soul  was  radiant.  Noth- 
ing creates  gloom  in  this  world  but  sin.  All  the 
things  which  we  count  terrible  are  insignificant  and 
have  no  power  to  cast  a  shadow.  There  is  only 
one  thing  which  makes  the  spirit  droop,  and  that  is 
sin.  His  sinlessness  explains  his  joyfulness.  He 
said,  "No  man  knows  the  Father  but  the  son"  — 
and  why.  Because  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart, 
for  they  shall  see  God."  Because  his  heart  was 
stainless,  his  vision  of  the  Eternal  was  unclouded. 
He  knew  God  as  no  other  man  has  ever  known 
him.  And  it  was  this  sinlessness  which  was  the 
secret  of  his  fascination.    He  drew  men  to  him, 


334  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

they  hung  upon  his  words,  they  were  fascinated  by 
him  even  when  they  hated,  they  were  drawn  to  him 
even  when  they  feared  him.  Simon  Peter  expresses 
the  conflicting  emotions  of  the  heart  in,  "Depart 
from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord."  When 
Jesus  asks  him  whether  he  is  going  away  he  says, 
*'To  whom  shall  we  go;  thou  hast  the  words  of 
eternal  life."  The  reason  we  are  drawn  to  him  is 
not  because  of  his  courage,  his  sympathy,  his  pa- 
tience, or  his  brotherliness ;  it  is  because  we  feel 
instinctively  that  he  is  far  above  us,  a  man  without 
a  sin.  It  is  this  which  gives  the  Christian  church 
its  power.  The  Christian  church  has  but  one  per- 
fect possession,  that  is  Jesus.  The  creed  of  the 
church  is  not  perfect,  its  phrases  were  formed  by  the 
blundering  mind  of  man.  The  Bible  is  not  perfect, 
it  is  not  inerrant,  it  has  many  a  flaw.  The  church 
itself  is  imperfect,  stained  through  and  through  with 
sin ;  but  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  head  of  the  church, 
is  stainless.  And  because  he  is  without  sin  the 
church  will  come  off  triumphant. 

If  you  ask  why  it  is  that  men  are  separated  from 
Jesus,  it  is  because  he  is  sinless  and  they  are  not. 
Some  of  you  are  not  interested  in  him ;  it  is  because 
he  is  so  far  above  you.  Some  of  you  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  him ;  it  is  because  you  are  not  at  all  like 
him.  Some  of  you  do  not  understand  his  words; 
that  is  because  you  are  disobedient.  Some  of  you 
have  no  disposition  to  do  his  will ;  it  is  because  you 
are  the  prisoners  of  sin.     But  the  sinless  Christ  does 


HIS  HOLINESS  ^  335 

not  turn  away  from  us,  no  matter  how  sinful  we  are. 
He  says:  "Come  unto  me.  He  that  cometh  unto 
me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  Without  sin  himself 
he  can  pity  us  in  our  sin,  and  is  willing  to  wash 
away  the  stains.  He  is  the  Lamb  of  God  that 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world. 

But  Thee,  but  Thee,  O  sovereign  Seer  of  time, 

But  Thee,  O  poet's  Poet,  Wisdom's  Tongue, 

But  Thee,  O  man's  best  Man,  O  love's  best  Love, 

O  perfect  life  in  perfect  labor  writ, 

O  all  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King,  or  Priest,  — 

What  if  or  yet^  what  mole,  what  flaw,  what  lapse, 

What  least  defect  or  shadow  of  defect, 

What  rumor,  tattled  by  an  enemy, 

Of  inference  loose,  what  lack  of  grace 

Even  in  torture's  grasp,  or  sleep's,  or  death's  — 

Oh,  what  amiss  may  I  forgive  in  Thee, 

Jesus,  good  Paragon,  thou  Crystal  Christ? 


XXVI 
THE  GREATNESS  OF  JESUS 


XXVI 

THE  GREATNESS  OF  JESUS 

"His  name  shall  be  called  Wonderful." 

—  Isaiah  ix  :  6. 

What  is  greatness  ?  Who  is  a  great  man  ?  What 
is  the  distinctive  element  in  a  man  which  gives  him 
this  proud  distinction?  The  dictionaries  will  not 
help  us.  We  find  it  difficult  to  draw  a  verbal  line 
between  the  great  man  and  the  man  who  is  not 
great.  And  yet  the  muse  of  history  has  no  difficulty 
in  picking  out  individuals  here  and  there  on  whose 
heads  she  places  crowns.  With  a  bold  hand  she 
inscribes  certain  names  upon  the  shining  list,  and 
bids  coming  generations  revere  these  names  as  those 
of  the  world's  immortals.  If  it  is  difficult  to  write  a 
definition  of  greatness,  there  seems  to  be  no  diffi- 
culty in  finding  men  whom  the  heart  persists  in 
counting  great. 

When  we  scrutinize  the  faces  of  this  immortal 
company,  we  are  struck  by  the  variety  of  gifts  and 
graces.  No  two  of  these  men  are  alike.  Homer 
is  not  like  Phidias,  nor  is  Phidias  like  Pericles,  nor 
is  Pericles  like  Plato.  Virgil  is  different  from  Caesar, 
who  is  different  from  Dante,  and  Dante  is  not  at  all 

339 


340  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

like  Scipio  or  Raphael  or  Justinian.  Goethe  is  dif- 
ferent from  Frederick  the  Great,  and  the  latter  is 
different  from  Kant  and  Hegel,  and  these  two  are 
not  like  either  Mendelssohn  or  Bismarck.  Na- 
poleon and  La  Place  and  Racine  and  Pasteur  are 
all  different  types  of  men.  William  the  Conqueror 
is  not  like  Shakespeare,  nor  is  Bishop  Butler  like 
Newton,  nor  is  the  Duke  of  Wellington  like  Glad- 
stone. Franklin  is  different  from  Washington,  and 
Lincoln  is  different  from  Longfellow,  and  Fulton 
and  Morse  are  different  from  all.  And  yet  all  these 
are  enrolled  among  the  mighty  dead.  In  what  re- 
spect were  they  alike  ?  What  characteristic  is  com- 
mon to  all?  In  such  a  heterogeneous  company  is 
it  possible  to  find  any  mark  which  makes  them 
akin  ?  It  is  possible,  and  the  quality  which  is  com- 
mon to  all  is  an  extraordinary  capacity  for  achieve- 
ment. These  men  all  did  things,  enduring  things, 
so  that  the  world  was  not  the  same  after  they  had 
gotten  done  with  it.  They  carved  statues  or  painted 
pictures  or  led  armies  or  ruled  states  or  composed 
music  or  framed  laws  or  wrote  poems  or  made  dis- 
coveries or  inventions  which  enriched  the  lives  and 
homes  of  men.  They  achieved  something  worth 
while.  They  made  a  mark  on  the  mind  of  the 
world.  The  product  of  their  genius  is  an  imperish- 
able possession  of  our  race. 

Was  Jesus  great?  What  did  he  achieve?  What 
did  he  ever  do  ?  He  never  chiselled  a  statue  or 
painted  a  picture  or  wrote  a  poem  or  composed  a 


HIS  GREATNESS  341 

piece  of  music  or  constructed  a  philosophical  system 
or  published  a  book  or  led  an  army  or  controlled  a 
senate  or  framed  a  law  or  made  a  discovery  or  con- 
trived an  invention  or  did  any  one  of  the  things 
which  have  made  the  names  of  other  men  illustrious. 
He  never  wore  a  crown  or  held  a  sceptre  or  threw 
round  his  shoulders  a  purple  robe.  He  never  held 
an  office  either  in  church  or  state.  He  did  abso- 
lutely nothing  in  art,  literature,  science,  philosophy, 
invention,  statesmanship  or  war,  the  seven  king- 
doms in  which  the  world's  great  men  have  won  their 
crowns.  And  yet  everybody  calls  Jesus  great.  No 
informed  man  in  any  part  of  the  world  would  to-day 
deny  him  that  exalting  adjective.  Not  only  is  he 
counted  great,  but  in  a  large  part  of  the  world  he  is 
counted  greatest  —  so  great  that  no  one  else  can  be 
compared  with  him.  Charles  Lamb  gave  expres- 
sion to  the  feeling  of  us  all  when  he  said,  "If 
Shakespeare  was  to  come  into  this  room,  we  should  /- 
all  rise  up  to  meet  him;  but  if  Christ  was  to  come 
into  it,  we  should  all  fall  upon  our  knees."  His 
greatness  is  greater  than  that  of  all  others,  and  it  is 
also  different. 

Other  men  are  great  artists  or  poets  or  generals 
or  statesmen,  whereas  Jesus  is  a  great  man.  His 
greatness  lies  in  the  realm  of  personality,  in  the 
kingdom  of  character.  His  achievement  was  not 
wrought  with  paint  or  with  chisel  or  with  sword  or 
with  pen,  but  by  the  heavenly  magic  of  a  victorious 
will.    There  is  nothing  of  him  but  his  manhood. 


342  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

He  wore  none  of  the  spangled  robes  of  earth.  We 
do  not  say,  *' Behold  the  poet,  the  orator,  the  philoso- 
pher, the  general,  the  statesman,  the  sovereign,  we 
say,  Behold  the  Man!"  A  man  may  be  a  great 
general  and  still  not  be  a  great  man.  Alexander 
the  Great  got  his  title  from  his  genius  for  massing 
phalanxes  of  soldiers  and  hurling  them  with  irre- 
sistible fury  against  the  army  which  opposed  him. 
As  a  man  he  was  a  weakling.  Passion  wrecked 
him  before  noon.  Napoleon  the  Great  was  great 
as  a  leader  of  armies,  but  as  a  man  he  was  petty 
and  vain  and  despicable.  As  a  murderer  and  rob- 
ber he  was  great,  but  as  a  man  he  was  a  pygmy. 
Great  statesmen  have  not  always  been  great  men. 
Sometimes  they  have  been  unscrupulous  and 
cowardly,  their  whole  interior  life  degraded  by  ap- 
petites and  passions  which  have  made  them  under- 
lings and  slaves.  The  great  artists  of  the  world  have 
not  all  been  kings  and  queens  in  the  graces  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  It  is  one  of  the  saddest  of 
all  surprises  to  discover  on  reading  the  biographies 
of  the  world's  immortal  workers  how  many  of  them 
have  been  narrow  and  superstitious,  selfish  and 
envious,  sordid  in  their  ambitions  and  groveling  in 
their  aims,  achieving  one  significant  or  beautiful 
piece  of  work  in  the  glory  of  which  the  shabbiness 
of  their  character  has  been  swallowed  up.  Jesus 
was  great  in  his  soul.  The  dimensions  of  his  mind 
and  his  heart  were  colossal.  His  spirit  was  regal, 
august,  sublime. 


HIS  GREATNESS  343 

How  he  looms  above  the  heads  of  his  contempo- 
raries !  There  were  men  of  distinction  in  Palestine 
nineteen  centuries  ago.  Jesus  measured  his  strength 
with  the  greatest  men  of  his  land  and  generation. 
But  how  lacking  these  men  were  in  insight  the 
Gospels  everywhere  disclose.  They  fumbled  cardi- 
nal questions  and  stumbled  at  points  which  were 
critical.  They  lost  themselves  in  the  mazes  of 
problems  which  they  could  not  see  through  or  master. 
Jesus  had  eyes  which  saw  to  the  core  of  every  prob- 
lem and  to  the  centre  of  every  situation.  He  never 
missed  the  essential  point  or  was  misled  by  a  sub- 
ordinate issue.  He  stripped  off  the  accidental  from 
the  soul  of  the  essential,  and  no  matter  how  tangled 
or  complicated  a  matter  was  he  seized  the  dominant 
principle  and  made  all  things  plain.  Compared 
with  him  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  were  owls  batting 
their  stupid  eyes  in  the  glare  of  noon.  Insight  is  a 
trait  of  greatness.  Only  great  men  see  deep  into 
things.  It  was  his  insight  which  made  him  formi- 
dable to  the  men  who  tried  to  trip  and  trap  him  with 
their  questions.  Again  and  again  they  tried  it,  but 
they  never  succeeded.  He  always  outwitted  their 
subtlety,  and  always  discomfited  them  at  their  favor- 
ite game.  Whenever  they  dashed  at  him  with  a 
question  intended  to  roll  him  in  the  dust,  he  seized 
it,  turned  its  point  upon  the  man  who  asked  it,  and 
went  on  his  way  triumphant.  Never  did  they  get 
the  advantage  of  him  in  a  discussion  or  an  argu- 
ment.   No  more  clever  man  ever  lived.    He  beat 


344  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

his  assailants  into  silence  every  time  they  attacked 
him.  His  cleverness  was  too  much  for  the  acutest 
intellect  which  wrestled  with  him.  He  was  quick, 
dexterous,  adroit,  and  yet '  when  we  think  of  him 
we  do  not  think  of  his  cleverness  because  cleverness 
is  a  scintillation  of  the  intellect,  and  while  intel- 
lectual brilliancy  dazzles  us  in  other  men,  we  are 
not  impressed  by  it  in  Jesus  because  his  cleverness 
is  only  one  of  many  talents  and  endowments  which 
.combine  to  add  lustre  to  his  princely,  transcendent 
personality.  In  ambition  and  ideal  he  was  in  com- 
parison with  the  leaders  of  his  people  what  Mont 
Blanc  is  to  the  chalets  which  farmers  have  erected 
at  its  base. 

His  greatness  comes  out  in  his  fellowship  with  his 
disciples.  They  were  strong  and  able  men,  all  of 
them,  able  later  on  to  turn  the  world  upside 
down;  but  they  cut  a  sorry  figure  in  the  presence 
of  the  man  they  acknowledge  to  be  their  master. 
They  are  pitifully  and  incorrigibly  stupid.  They 
cannot  understand  some  of  the  simplest  things  the 
Master  says.  He  is  so  high  above  them  that  they 
cannot  climb  to  where  he  is.  There  is  pathos  in  his 
oft-repeated  question,  "Do  you  not  yet  under- 
stand?" But  it  is  in  their  temper  and  ambition 
that  the  disciples  are  at  their  worst.  They  were 
petty,  envious,  selfish  men.  They  wrangled  among 
themselves  as  to  which  one  of  them  should  hold  the 
highest  place,  and  even  on  the  last  evening  of  Jesus' 
life  they  squabbled  as  to  the  places  they  should 


HIS  GREATNESS  345 

occupy  around  the  table.  No  wonder  he  calls  them 
*' little  children,"  for  that  was  all  they  were.  They 
were  childish  in  their  temper  and  ambitions  just  as 
most  men  are.  They  Were  as  old  in  years  as  Jesus ; 
but  in  thought  and  aim,  in  hope  and  ideal,  they  were 
as  compared  with  Jesus  only  a  company  of  babies. 

When  we  leave  the  New  Testament  and  walk 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth  where  shall  we  find 
a  man  with  whom  we  should  be  willing  to  compare 
Jesus  of  Nazareth?  Can  you  think  of  an  Italian 
or  a  German  or  a  Frenchman  or  an  Englishman  or 
an  American  whose  name  is  worthy  to  be  linked  with 
his?  The  heart  draws  back  shuddering  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  such  a  thought.  Great  men  have  come 
and  gone,  doing  their  mighty  deeds  and  leaving 
behind  names  which  shall  not  die,  but  what  race  or 
nation  would  dare  even  in  its  most  egotistic  and  vain- 
glorious moments  to  suggest  that  the  most  illustrious 
of  all  its  sons  has  a  right  to  sit  on  a  throne  so  high 
as  the  throne  of  Jesus  ?  His  soul  is  like  a  star  and 
dwells  apart.  He  is  unique,  unapproached,  unap- 
proachable. He  is  the  incomparable.  His  name  is 
Wonderful. 

How  great  Jesus  is  can  be  told  by  the  length  and 
width  and  depth  of  his  achievement.  Greatness  is 
measured  by  the  effect  which  it  produces.  Men  can- 
not be  judged  by  stature  or  physical  characteristics. 
You  cannot  tell  whether  a  man  is  great  or  not  by 
looking  at  his  body.  All  men  are  in  body  sub- 
stantially  alike.    They   have   the   same   appetites, 


346  CHARACTER  OF  JESUS 

passions,  organs.  If  you  tickle  them  they  laugh,  if 
you  prick  them  they  bleed.  Nor  can  you  find  a 
man's  greatness  always  in  his  words.  For  all  men 
use  substantially  the  same  nouns  and  adjectives, 
verbs  and  adverbs.  The  same  sentence  spoken  by 
two  men  may  have  totally  different  results.  One 
man  speaks  it,  and  it  produces  no  impression.  It 
dies  in  the  moment  of  its  birth.  Another  speaks  it 
and  it  sets  hearts  blazing  and  is  remembered  for 
evermore.  Greatness  does  not  lie  in  words  but  in 
souls.  Not  even  do  a  man's  actions  reveal  com- 
pletely what  he  is.  In  their  conduct  great  men  act 
much  as  do  ordinary  men.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
no  man  is  ever  a  hero  to  his  valet.  The  valet  hears 
his  master's  words,  sees  the  clothes  he  wears,  the 
things  he  eats,  the  engagements  which  he  keeps,  and 
knowing  these  he  cannot  believe  that  his  master  is 
a  hero.  A  valet's  eyes  do  not  see  to  the  ends  of 
things,  nor  can  a  valet's  mind  weigh  effects  or  trace 
the  track  of  influence.  He  does  not  know  what  his 
master  is  accomplishing  in  the  world,  but  it  is  by 
the  total  effect  of  a  man's  life  that  we  are  to  tell 
whether  or  not  he  is  great.  Great  men  are  all  alike 
in  this,  that  they  bring  things  to  pass.  Things  take 
place  when  they  are  present  which  do  not  take  place 
in  their  absence.  They  change  the  currents  of  men's 
thoughts  and  set  a  new  fashion  in  the  world.  Men 
gather  round  them  and  criticise  them,  point  out  where 
they  fall  short,  and  show  how  the  thing  could  have 
been  better  done  in  some  other  way ;  but  the  critics  die 


HIS  GREATNESS  347 

and  are  forgotten  and  the  great  man  lives  on  forever. 
How  he  accomplishes  his  results  he  never  tells.  Why 
he  exerts  such  an  influence,  we  never  know.  The 
secret  of  greatness  is  incommunicable.  It  lies  hidden 
in  the  abysmal  deeps  of  personality. 

If  Jesus  is  to  be  judged  by  the  effects  which  he 
produced  and  still  produces,  then  his  name  is  indeed 
Wonderful.  Upon  the  men  of  his  time  he  exerted 
a  power  so  marvellous  that  it  seemed  uncanny, 
magical,  and  some  people  thought  he  must  be  in 
league  with  the  mighty  powers  of  the  under  world. 
When  he  spoke  men  overflowed  with  ideas  and  feel- 
ings —  feelings  of  love  or  feelings  of  detestation.  No 
man  ever  stood  stolid  in  his  presence.  Men  went 
wild  over  him,  some  in  adoration  and  some  in  hatred. 
Wherever  he  went  he  left  men  seething  and  bubbling. 
There  were  a  few  men  —  his  apostles  —  who  came 
close  to  him.  Upon  these  he  exerted  an  influence 
which  extended  to  the  roots  of  their  being.  One 
of  these  men  —  Thomas  —  was  unusually  slow  and 
cool.  He  was  not  made  of  inflammable  stuff.  He 
was  not  easily  carried  away  by  emotion,  for  the  tides 
of  emotion  in  him  were  not  strong.  But  this  manj 
when  Jesus  one  day  suggested  going  to  a  certaiii 
place  beset  with  danger  exclaimed,  "Let  us  go  and 
die  with  him."  It  is  not  easy  to  die  at  thirty.  No 
normal  man  in  his  ordinary  mood  wants  to  die 
before  the  sun  has  reached  the  meridian.  But  this 
man  Thomas  had  been  so  wrought  upon  by  the  per- 
sonality of  Jesus  that  he  was  ready  to  die  with  him. 


-I 


348  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

And  SO  were  all  the  apostles.  Peter  in  the  upper 
chamber  declared  with  emphasis  that  he  was  ready 
to  go  with  Jesus  to  prison  and  to  death.  A  few 
hours  later  his  courage  oozed  out,  but  that  cowardice 
was  only  temporary,  and  Peter  later  on  did  the  very 
thing  which  he  declared  to  Jesus  he  would  do.  And 
what  Peter  did  all  of  the  apostles  did,  John  alone 
excepted.  He  has  indeed  something  extraordinary 
within  him  who  can  so  work  upon  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  men  as  to  make  them  glad  to  give  up  their 
lives  for  him.  There  is  only  one  greater  thing  than 
dying  for  another  and  that  is  living  for  another, 
living  a  life  of  obloquy  and  persecution,  suffering  all 
things  for  his  sake.  Here  is  the  climax  of  power. 
Jesus  changed  men.  He  changed  their  habits  and 
opinions  and  ambitions,  he  changed  their  tempers 
and  dispositions  and  natures.  He  changed  their 
hearts.  They  were  never  the  same  after  they  gave 
themselves  up  to  him.  God  and  man,  the  world 
and  duty,  were  different  to  them  after  they  had  looked 
steadily  into  his  face.  Wherever  he  went  he  trans- 
formed human  lives.  He  transfigured  human  faces 
by  cleansing  the  fountains  of  the  heart.  This  is 
greatness  indeed. 

And  what  he  did  in  Palestine  he  has  been  doing 
ever  since.  Wherever  the  story  of  his  life  is  carried 
the  climate  of  thought  and  feeling  changes.  Every 
land  across  which  his  name  has  been  heralded  has 
been  transformed  in  ideals  and  institutions.  The 
forward-looking  portion  of   the  world  numbers  the 


HIS  GREATNESS  549 

years  from  the  date  of  his  birth.  Richter  was  not 
writing  poetry  but  prose  when  he  declared  that 
Jesus*  pierced  hands  lifted  empires  off  their  hinges 
and  turned  the  stream  of  history  into  a  new  channel. 
You  cannot  account  for  the  difference  between  Occi- 
dent and  Orient  without  a  consideration  of  the  in- 
fluence of  this  one  Man.  Fifteen  hundred  years  ago 
the  civilization  of  China  was  what  it  is  to-day.  The 
social  and  industrial  orders  have  through  all  this 
period  remained  there  unchanged,  and  Chinese  so- 
ciety is  no  more  highly  embellished  and  the  Chinese 
character  is  not  a  whit  more  cultivated  than  they 
were  a  millennium  and  a  half  ago.  Fifteen  hundred 
years  ago  northern  Europe  was  a  wilderness,  and 
so  also  was  the  island  of  Britain.  In  these  wilder- 
nesses there  lived  various  tribes  of  barbarous  people, 
whose  pastime  was  to  make  war  on  one  another. 
Many  of  them  were  but  little  above  the  rank  of 
savages.  Through  fifteen  hundred  years  northern 
Europe  and  the  British  Isles  have  been  coming  up, 
up,  up,  until  to-day  there  are  no  higher  summits 
in  the  world.  While  China  has  remained  exactly 
where  she  was,  western  Europe  has  been  ascending ; 
and  when  you  endeavor  to  interpret  this  wonderful 
phenomenon,  you  cannot  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
China  has  been  gazing  into  the  face  of  Confucius 
while  western  Europe  has  been  gazing  into  the  face 
of  Jesus.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  lifted  Europe  to 
the  seats  of  power.  It  is  one  of  the  supreme  miracles 
of  the  world's  history. 


350  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

Some  men  are  great  in  their  influence  for  a  genera- 
tion, and  then  their  power  begins  to  wane.  They  sit 
on  thrones  for  a  season  and  then  abdicate.  Will  it  be 
so  with  Jesus  ?  We  only  know  that  through  nineteen 
hundred  years  he  has  been  climbing  to  a  supremacy 
increasingly  spacious  and  august.  His  name  has  been 
rising,  swallowing  up  the  glory  of  other  names  as  the 
sun  mounting  the  eastern  sky  swallows  up  the  stars. 
To-day  his  name  is  above  every  name.  Ours  is  the 
greatest  of  all  the  centuries.  Never  have  men  been 
so  impatient  to  get  on  as  they  are  to-day,  and  never 
have  they  been  so  indifferent  to  the  past.  And  yet 
the  most  thrilling  cry  of  our  day  is,  "  Back  to  Jesus  !'* 
It  is  heard  all  around  the  world.  Men  once  cried, 
"Back  to  the  Reformers!"  but  the  Reformers  did 
not  satisfy,  and  then  the  cry  was,  "Back  to  the 
Fathers!"  but  the  Fathers  could  not  help,  and  then 
the  cry  was,  "Back  to  the  Apostles !"  but  the  Apos- 
tles were  found  to  be  shining  only  with  a  reflected 
light,  and  so  now  the  world  is  saying:  "Back  to 
Jesus!"  "Let  us  go  back  to  him  for  the  sake  of 
getting  on,  in  order  to  get  light  for  our  darkened 
pathway,  and  to  find  principles  with  which  to  solve 
our  complicated  problems!"  More  lives  of  Jesus 
have  been  written  within  the  last  fifty  years  than  of 
any  other  historic  character.  More  pages  are  printed 
about  him  every  week  than  about  any  hundred  of  the 
world's  greatest  men.  He  exerts  a  power  which  is  so 
phenomenal  that  many  feel  he  must  be  more  than 
man,  linked  in  some  way  or  other  with  the  Eternal. 


HIS  GREATNESS  351 

He  must  be  —  men  say  —  the  Son  of  God.  In  this 
land  alone  men  contribute  two  hundred  million 
dollars  every  year  to  support  the  institutions  which 
bear  his  name.  They  are  not  compelled  to  do  this. 
They  do  it  voluntarily  because  they  want  to  do  it, 
and  because  he  so  works  upon  them  that  they  coimt 
such  giving  a  privilege  and  pleasure.  As  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  once  said, "  This  man  vanished  for  eighteen 
hundred  years  still  holds  the  characters  of  men  as 
in  a  vice."  The  little  Corsican  sat  dumfounded  as 
he  compared  his  greatness  with  the  greatness  of  the 
Man  of  Galilee.  Napoleon's  last  biographer  de- 
votes two  volumes  to  the  rise  of  his  hero  and  two 
volumes  to  his  decline  and  fall.  All  the  volumes  of 
the  life  of  Jesus  record  the  story  of  his  ascent.  He 
goes  on  and  on  from  victory  to  victory,  from  glory  to 
glory,  and  as  men's  eyes  become  cleansed  and  their 
hearts  purified  they  see  with  increasing  certainty 
that  God  has  indeed  so  highly  exalted  him  that  some 
day  every  knee  shall  bend  to  him  and  every  tongue 
confess  that  he  is  King  indeed. 

His  greatness  is  full-orbed.  He  was  complete,  and 
in  his  completeness  we  find  an  explanation  of  his 
beauty.  Men  who  stood  nearest  to  him  were  charmed 
and  swayed  by  his  loveliness.  He  was  full  of  grace 
and  truth.  He  had  a  charm  about  him  which  wooed 
and  fascinated.  Children  liked  him,  boys  sang  for 
him,  publicans  hung  upon  him.  He  had  the  heart 
of  a  child,  the  tenderness  of  a  woman,  the  strength 
of  a  man.    The  three  dimensions  of  his  life  were 


352  CHARACTER   OF  JESUS 

complete.  He  had  eyes  which  looked  along  ex- 
tended lines  running  into  eternity ;  he  had  sympathies 
wide  enough  to  cover  humanity  to  its  outermost 
edge;  he  had  a  purpose  which  included  all  lands 
and  ages,  his  kingdom  is  to  be  universal  and  it  shall 
have  no  end.  He  is  at  every  point  complete.  His 
virtues  are  all  full-statured,  his  graces  are  all  in 
fullest  bloom.  You  can  no  more  add  anything  to 
him  than  you  can  add  something  to  the  sky.  He 
pushed  every  good  trait  of  human  character  to  its 
utmost  limit.  His  forgiveness  was  unbounded,  his 
generosity  was  untiring,  his  patience  was  inex- 
haustible, his  mercy  was  immeasurable,  his  courage 
was  illimitable,  his  wisdom  was  unfathomable,  his 
kindness  was  interminable,  his  faith  removed 
mountains,  his  hope  had  no  shadow  in  it,  his  love 
was  infinite.  And  so  it  is  impossible  to  go  beyond 
him.  We  can  never  outgrow  him.  He  will  be 
always  ahead  of  us.  We  shall  always  hear  him 
saying,  "Follow  me !"  He  is  the  ideal  of  the  heart. 
He  is  the  goal  of  humanity.  It  is  this  completeness 
of  his  character  which  accounts  not  only  for  his 
beauty  but  for  his  perennial  and  increasing  power. 
He  is  the  lily  of  the  valley,  the  fairest  of  ten  thousand, 
the  one  altogether  lovely.    He  is  the  image  of  God  I 

"If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man, 
And  only  a  man,  I  say, 
That  of  all  mankind  I  cleave  to  him, 
And  to  him  will  I  cleave  alway. 


HIS  GREATNESS  353 

"If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God, 
And  the  only  God,  I  swear, 
I  will  follow  him  through  heaven  and  hell, 
The  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  air." 


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